Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ to indicate that you are talking about a large number of people or things.
I don’t think ~ people would argue with that...
Not ~ films are made in Finland...
Many holidaymakers had avoided the worst of the delays by consulting tourist offices...
Acting is definitely a young person’s profession in ~ ways.
? few
DET: DET pl-n, oft with brd-neg
•
Many is also a pronoun.
We stood up, thinking through the possibilities. There weren’t ~.
? few, some
PRON
•
Many is also a quantifier.
So, once we have cohabited, why do ~ of us feel the need to get married?...
It seems there are not very ~ of them left in the sea...
QUANT: QUANT of def-pl-n
•
Many is also an adjective.
Among his ~ hobbies was the breeding of fine horses...
The possibilities are ~.
ADJ: det ADJ, v-link ADJ
2.
You use ~ in expressions such as ‘not ~’, ‘not very ~’, and ‘too ~’ when replying to questions about numbers of things or people.
‘How ~ of the songs that dealt with this theme became hit songs?’—‘Not very ~.’...
How ~ years is it since we’ve seen each other? Too ~, anyway.
ADV: ADV as reply
3.
You use ~ followed by ‘a’ and a noun to emphasize that there are a lot of people or things involved in something.
Many a mother tries to act out her unrealized dreams through her daughter...
PREDET emphasis
4.
You use ~ after ‘how’ to ask questions about numbers or quantities. You use ~ after ‘how’ in reported clauses to talk about numbers or quantities.
How ~ years have you been here?...
No-one knows how ~ people have been killed since the war began.
DET: how DET pl-n
•
Many is also a pronoun.
How ~ do you smoke a day?
PRON: how PRON
5.
You use ~ with ‘as’ when you are comparing numbers of things or people.
I’ve always entered as ~ photo competitions as I can...
We produced ten times as ~ tractors as the United States.
DET: as DET pl-n, usu as DET pl-n as cl/group
•
Many is also a pronoun.
Let the child try on as ~ as she likes.
PRON: as PRON
6.
You use ~ to mean ‘~ people’.
Iris Murdoch was regarded by ~ as a supremely good and serious writer.
PRON
7.
The ~ means a large group of people, especially the ordinary people in society, considered as separate from a particular small group.
The printing press gave power to a few to change the world for the ~...
N-SING: the N
8.
You use as ~ as before a number to suggest that it is surprisingly large.
As ~ as four and a half million people watched today’s parade.
PHRASE: PHR num emphasis
9.
You use a good ~ or a great ~ to emphasize that you are referring to a large number of things or people.
We’ve both had a good ~ beers...
For a great ~ men and women, romance can be a most important part of marriage.
PHRASE: PHR pl-n emphasis
10.
~ happy returns: see return
in so ~ words: see word