NYT Dictionary

MUCH

/mʊt͡ʃ/
DeterminerAdjectiveAdverbPronounMUHTSGrade 1

Accepted in official NYT Spelling Bee puzzle years: 2019, 2020, 2024, 2025

Meaning

A large amount of.

Etymology

Origin: Old English

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s Proto-Indo-European *-lósder. Proto-Germanic *-ilaz Proto-Germanic *mikilaz Proto-West Germanic *mikil Old English miċel Middle English muchel Middle English muche English much From Middle English muche (“much, great”), apocopated variant of muchel (“much, great”), from Old English myċel, miċel (“big, much”), from Proto-West Germanic *mikil, from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂- (“big, stour, great”). See also mickle, muckle. Cognates Cognate with Scots mickle, mukill, mekil, mikil (“big, large, great, much”), Middle Dutch mēkel (“great, many, much”), Middle High German michel ("great, many, much"; > German michel (“great, big, large”)), Norwegian Bokmål mye (“much”), Norwegian Nynorsk mykje (“much”), Swedish mycket (“much”), Danish meget (“much”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌺𐌹𐌻𐍃 (mikils, “great, many”), Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas, “large, great”), Modern Greek μεγάλος (megálos, “large, great”). Note that English much is not related to Spanish mucho, and their resemblance in both form and meaning is purely coincidental, as mucho derives from Latin multus and is not related to the Germanic forms. Instead, related to Spanish maño.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

a great deal ofa lot ofa great deala lotgreatlyhighlyloadsplentyvery muchlots

Antonyms

littlelessfewalmostnearly

NYT Puzzle Appearances

Accepted in 3 recorded puzzles:

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