Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Greatness of quantity, degree, or extent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being much; large quantity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Obs. or Colloq. Greatness; extent.
  • noun [Colloq.] much the same.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Large size or bulk; bigness; size; magnitude (large or small).
  • noun Greatness in quantity, number, amount, or degree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun greatness of quantity or measure or extent

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English muchelnesse, michelnesse ("greatness, magnitude"), from Old English mycelnes, micelnes ("greatness, size, mass, quantity, multitude, abundance, magnificence, great deed"), equivalent to much +‎ -ness. Cognate with Old High German michilnessi ("greatness, magnitude"). Compare also mickleness.

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Examples

  • Mia Wasikowska did not ring my chimes as Alice -- she lacked, in the Hatter's words, "muchness," but she looked grand in her armor, and was in constant battle with a script that seemed to call upon her to be simultaneously passive and active, for no particular internal reason I could see.

    Alice In Wonderland deliasherman 2010

  • Mia Wasikowska did not ring my chimes as Alice -- she lacked, in the Hatter's words, "muchness," but she looked grand in her armor, and was in constant battle with a script that seemed to call upon her to be simultaneously passive and active, for no particular internal reason I could see.

    Alice In Wonderland deliasherman 2010

  • ` ` The style of his Grace (to say nothing here of his thought, of which others have spoken words of admiration certainly not too strong) often runs into poetry; and it has everywhere that indescribable not-too-muchness which is always the cachet of high-class work. ''

    Ginx's Baby. His Birth and other Misfortunes: A Satire 1871

  • What I've gained in these past few years of living in pop's hurricane eye is not a love of songcraft I got that listening to Elvis Costello in my dorm room or a craving for spectacular "muchness"

    Slate Magazine Ann Powers 2011

  • (compare our '_square_ meal'), _heft_ for _weight_, and 'muchness' in the 'Mirror for Magistrates,' _bankbill_ in Swift and Fielding, and _as_ for _that_ I might say _passim_.

    The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell 1855

  • Some theme anthologies need to be read and savored slowly, being much of a muchness, one story bearing too much of a similarity to another.

    REVIEW: Poe edited by Ellen Datlow 2009

  • As a writer who since my teenaged days has had one foot in the Spanish world, that is, Spain, whose art, architecture and writing, has always included multiple highways and byways -- an innate baroqueness -- I am used to this muchness.

    Barbara Probst Solomon: Larry Rivers After Crossing His Delaware Barbara Probst Solomon 2011

  • As a writer who since my teenaged days has had one foot in the Spanish world, that is, Spain, whose art, architecture and writing, has always included multiple highways and byways -- an innate baroqueness -- I am used to this muchness.

    Barbara Probst Solomon: Larry Rivers After Crossing His Delaware Barbara Probst Solomon 2011

  • The good news is that Paul's campaign has offered her and her mother a private meeting with the candidate.12.16pm: Today's poll round-up, and there have been a blizzard of the things in the last two days, all much of a muchness but showing a slight slide in Mitt Romney's sky-high ratings and an uptick for Jon Huntsman and others.

    New Hampshire primary - live: Mitt Romney fends off attacks 2012

  • The contrast between the ocean's nothingness and civilization's muchness is captured by the photographs of Alex L.

    Photo-Op: Life on the Edge 2011

Comments

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  • '"They were learning to draw," the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; "and they drew all manner of things—everything that begins with an M—"

    "Why with an M?" said Alice.

    "Why not?" said the March Hare.

    Alice was silent.

    The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up again with a little shriek, and went on: "—that begins with an M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness— you know you say things are 'much of a muchness'—did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?"'

    July 18, 2008