Many means a large number of people or things, more than a few. It is used with countable nouns.
From Old English 'manig', related to German 'manch' and other Germanic forms meaning 'numerous' or 'various'. It has been part of the basic number words in English for over a thousand years.
Words like 'many' feel invisible because we use them so much, but they’re key to how we talk about quantity without exact numbers. It pairs with countable things—'many apples'—while 'much' prefers uncountable stuff like 'much water'.
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