- 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-.
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