- to a great degree
- Thank you very much for the flowers.
- I would very much like to see you again.
- He isn't in the office much (= often).
- You worry too much.
- My new job is much the same as the old one.
- Much to her surprise he came back the next day.
- She's much better today.
- The other one was much too expensive.
- Nikolai's English was much the worst.
- We are very much aware of the lack of food supplies.
- I'm not much good at tennis.
- He was much loved by all who knew him.
- an appeal to raise much-needed cash
Grammar Point much / a lot of / lots ofmuch / a lot of / lots of- Much is used only with uncountable nouns. It is used mainly in questions and negative sentences:
- Do you have much free time?
- How much experience have you had?
- I don’t have much free time.
- In statements a lot of or lots of (informal) is much more common:
- How much (money) does she earn?
- She earns a lot of money.
- A lot of/lots of is still felt to be informal, especially in British English, so in formal writing it is better to use much, a great deal of or a large amount of.
- Very much and a lot can be used as adverbs:
- I miss my family very much.
- I miss very much my family.
- I miss my family a lot.
- Thanks a lot.
- I didn’t enjoy the film (very) much.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryMuch is used with these adjectives:- aggrieved
- akin
- amused
- …
Word OriginMiddle English: shortened from muchel, from Old English micel ‘great, numerous, much’, of Germanic origin; from an Indo-European root shared by Greek megas, megal-.Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
Idioms
See much in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee much in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishmuch as
- although
- Much as I would like to stay, I really must go home.
much/still less
- and certainly not
- No explanation was offered, still less an apology.
- He’s too shy to ask a stranger the time, much less speak to a room full of people.
so much the better/worse
- used to say that something is even better/worse
- We don't actually need it on Tuesday, but if it arrives by then, so much the better.
- If hurricanes become more powerful, as current research suggests, so much the worse.
Check pronunciation:
much