# many

> English word · Determiner · IPA /ˈmɛni/ · frequency rank #131

## Definitions
1. before a countable noun: A large, indefinite number of.
2. before a countable noun: (in combinations such as 'as many', 'so many', 'this many') Used to indicate, demonstrate or compare the number of people or things.

## Etymology
From Middle English many, mani, moni, from Old English maniġ, moniġ, maneġ (“many”), from Proto-West Germanic *manag, from Proto-Germanic *managaz (“many; much”), from Proto-Indo-European *menegʰ-, *mengʰ- (“many, sufficient”) or Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂- (“big, great”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots mony (“many”), Yola many (“many”), North Frisian manag, manig, mäning (“many”), Alemannic German meng (“many”), Central Franconian mannich, männich (“many”), Dutch menig (“many”), German manch (“many, some”), Low German männich, männig (“many”), Luxembourgish muench, munch, munnech (“many”), Danish mangen (“many”), Faroese mangur (“many”), Icelandic margur (“many”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk mang, mange (“many”), Swedish mången (“many”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐍃 (manags, “many; much”), French maint (“many”); also Cornish menowgh (“frequent, often”), Irish minic (“frequently, often”), Manx mennick (“frequent, often”), Scottish Gaelic minig (“frequent”), Welsh mynych (“frequent, often”), Belarusian мно́га (mnóha, “many; much”), Bulgarian and Russian мно́го (mnógo, “many; much”), Czech mnohý (“many, numerous”), Macedonian мно́гу (mnógu, “very; many; much”), Polish mnogi (“numerous; plural”), Serbo-Croatian мно̏гӣ, mnȍgī (“many; much, long; large, numerous”), Ukrainian мно́гий (mnóhyj, “many, multiple”).
The noun is from Middle English manye, *menye, from Old English manigeo, menigu (“company, multitude, host”), from Proto-West Germanic *managu, *managī, from Proto-Germanic *managō, *managį̄ (“multitude”), from the same root as the determiner. Cognate with Middle Low German menige, menie, menje (“multitude”), Russian много (mnogo), Serbo-Croatian mnogo.

## Easily confused with
- **my** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-my)
- **MN** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mn)
- **may** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-may)
- **men** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-men)
- **map** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-map)
- **max** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-max)
- **min** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-min)
- **mar** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mar)
- **mon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mon)
- **mat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mat)
- **mao** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mao)
- **Mau** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mau)
- **mun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mun)
- **MSN** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-msn)
- **maw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-maw)
- **mean** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mean)
- **mind** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mind)
- **mark** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mark)
- **mine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mine)
- **mass** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/many-vs-mass)

## Common misspellings (5)
`amny`, `manyy`, `mayn`, `mmany`, `mnay`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/many