MANY A

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does many a mean? 

• MANY A (adjective)
  The adjective MANY A has 1 sense:

1. each of a large indefinite number

  Familiarity information: MANY A used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MANY A (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Each of a large indefinite number

Synonyms:

many a; many an; many another

Context example:

many another day will come

Similar:

many (a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'as' or 'too' or 'so' or 'that'; amounting to a large but indefinite number)

 Context examples 

You have liked many a stupider person.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But I did not love my servitude: I wished, many a time, he had continued to neglect me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Well, as a man gets on in years, said the Champion, there’s many a duty turns up that the likes of you have no idea of.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So, with many a frightened backward glance, I made for home.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

How many a time have we talked over her little errors!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Sir, we have been in the wars together, and I have seen many a brave following but never such a set of woodland boys as this.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Many a noble fortune has been made during the war.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“They were indeed, Ham. What did Em'ly do?” “Says Em'ly, “Martha, is it you? Oh, Martha, can it be you?”—for they had sat at work together, many a day, at Mr. Omer's.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I asked him to help me so, and he never forgot it, but saved me from many a sharp word by that little gesture and kind look.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The window at which I stood was tall and deep, stone-mullioned, and though weatherworn, was still complete; but it was evidently many a day since the case had been there.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)