Synonyms of "many"

Question

Dear Everyone,

I’m a bit confused about the registers of expressions which mean “many”.

I know lots of, a lot of, numerous, many-many, a great number of, a great many, a high number of, large numbers of, a multitude of, plenty of, scores of, innumerable, and an enormous number of.

Could you, please, let me know which can be used in a formal or definitely sophisticated text, which ones only in a casual one, and which in both? [A]

Thank you!

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hi;

Many simply means more than a few. But it is a number that is countable.

Joseph had a coat of many colors.

These two are equivalent:

Many people came to the concert.

A lot of people came to the concert.

This is informal:

Lots of people came to the concert.

Numerous is also more than a few. It stresses some number of items from some inferred set, each item being a distinct object;

He had numerous excuses for being absent from school. (each excuse was different)

He wrote numerous articles on the subject.

She had numerous opportunities to make an appointment.

Plenty has the meaning of more than enough. There was plenty of food to eat. No one went hungry.

Most of the others in your list are superlatives of many - emphasizing a large number up to an uncountable number:

innumerable (too many to count)

scores of (a score is 20, so Lincoln refers to 87 years here: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.) It is not a common expression.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you very-very much, AlpheccaStars, for your illuminating post!

Synonyms of "many"

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