"many a" meaning in English

See many a in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Determiner

Head templates: {{head|en|determiner|head=}} many a, {{en-det}} many a
  1. Being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind. Synonyms: many an (english: used before a word starting with a vowel sound) Derived forms: many a mickle makes a muckle, many a time, many a time and oft, many a time and often, many a times [nonstandard], there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle, there's many a slip between the cup and the lip, there's many a slip twixt cup and lip, there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip Related terms: a fair booty makes many a thief, many another, nary a Translations (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind): mnohý (Czech), leckterý (Czech), manch (German), molto (Italian), parecchio (Italian), mang en (Norwegian Bokmål), mangen (Norwegian Bokmål), mangt et (Norwegian Bokmål), niejeden [masculine] (Polish), многий (mnogij) (Russian), mången (Swedish), månget (Swedish)
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      "expansion": "many a",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "det",
  "senses": [
    {
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      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "many a mickle makes a muckle"
        },
        {
          "word": "many a time"
        },
        {
          "word": "many a time and oft"
        },
        {
          "word": "many a time and often"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "nonstandard"
          ],
          "word": "many a times"
        },
        {
          "word": "there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle"
        },
        {
          "word": "there's many a slip between the cup and the lip"
        },
        {
          "word": "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip"
        },
        {
          "word": "there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There is many a true word spoken in jest.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Many a flower is born to blush unseen.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1608–1641, Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, edited by Theron Wilber Haight, The Divine Weeks of Josuah Sylvester, Waukesha, Wis., USA: H. M. Youmans, published 1908, page 150:",
          "text": "Know then that God, to the end He be not thought, / A powerless judge, here plagueth many a fault, / And many a fault leaves here unpunished, / That men may also His last judgment dread.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1908 April 11, “The Coal-Miners and the Wage-Scale”, in The Literary Digest, volume 36, number 15, page 507:",
          "text": "If the 250,000 miners, which threaten to stop work, go out on strike there is likely to be many an idle mill beside the water courses and many a factory with silent spindles.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:",
          "text": "So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1914, David Lloyd George, The Great War, Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, Limited, page 3:",
          "text": "Many a crime has being committed in its name: there are some being committed now.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review—choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "Danny Boyle's T2 Trainspotting is everything I could reasonably have hoped for—scary, funny, desperately sad, with many a bold visual flourish.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind."
      ],
      "id": "en-many_a-en-det-ziknF7V-",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "a fair booty makes many a thief"
        },
        {
          "word": "many another"
        },
        {
          "word": "nary a"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "english": "used before a word starting with a vowel sound",
          "word": "many an"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "mnohý"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "leckterý"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "manch"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "molto"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "parecchio"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "mang en"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "mangen"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "mangt et"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "niejeden"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "mnogij",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "многий"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "mången"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
          "word": "månget"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "many a"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "many a mickle makes a muckle"
    },
    {
      "word": "many a time"
    },
    {
      "word": "many a time and oft"
    },
    {
      "word": "many a time and often"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "nonstandard"
      ],
      "word": "many a times"
    },
    {
      "word": "there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle"
    },
    {
      "word": "there's many a slip between the cup and the lip"
    },
    {
      "word": "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip"
    },
    {
      "word": "there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip"
    }
  ],
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  "pos": "det",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "a fair booty makes many a thief"
    },
    {
      "word": "many another"
    },
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      "word": "nary a"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There is many a true word spoken in jest.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Many a flower is born to blush unseen.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1608–1641, Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, edited by Theron Wilber Haight, The Divine Weeks of Josuah Sylvester, Waukesha, Wis., USA: H. M. Youmans, published 1908, page 150:",
          "text": "Know then that God, to the end He be not thought, / A powerless judge, here plagueth many a fault, / And many a fault leaves here unpunished, / That men may also His last judgment dread.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1908 April 11, “The Coal-Miners and the Wage-Scale”, in The Literary Digest, volume 36, number 15, page 507:",
          "text": "If the 250,000 miners, which threaten to stop work, go out on strike there is likely to be many an idle mill beside the water courses and many a factory with silent spindles.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:",
          "text": "So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1914, David Lloyd George, The Great War, Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, Limited, page 3:",
          "text": "Many a crime has being committed in its name: there are some being committed now.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review—choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "Danny Boyle's T2 Trainspotting is everything I could reasonably have hoped for—scary, funny, desperately sad, with many a bold visual flourish.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "english": "used before a word starting with a vowel sound",
      "word": "many an"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "mnohý"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "leckterý"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "manch"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "molto"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "parecchio"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "mang en"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "mangen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "mangt et"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "niejeden"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "mnogij",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "многий"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "mången"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind",
      "word": "månget"
    }
  ],
  "word": "many a"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.