how many

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how many

1. (This entry is a translation hub.)

   How many times have I told you not to slam the door?

   How many keys we have lost!

   I told him how many days the principal said he skipped school.

• Used with countable nouns only. The form used with uncountable nouns is how much.

how many

1. unspecified number

   We've lost quite a few; I don't know exactly how many.

   • 1800, George Fox, A Journal Or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, Christian Exsperiences, and Labour of Love, in the work of the Ministry:

     And I saw how many were destroying the simplicity, and betraying the truth.

   • 2004, John P. Sutton, Thin White Lines, page 233:

     Biff then stated, “Take how many you want, they're $700 a piece."

   • 2012, Charlie Gardner, Rotten Timbers, →ISBN, page 143:

     I'll phone later and confirm how many I want.

   • 2016, L. James Dempsey, Blackfoot War Art: Pictographs of the Reservation Period, 1880–2000:

     The sticks are now going around, and take how many you want.

2. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) what number

   How many of you have full-time jobs?

   How many have we lost to disease?

   • 2000, Glen C. Cutlip, How to Overcome Death: The Final Victory, →ISBN, page 61:

     The message itself is neither difficult nor simple, but how many will realize this?

   • 2005, David B. Spangler, Math for Real Kids, →ISBN:

     You know how many are in one group and how many are in another group.

   • 2010, Michael A. Curtis, Notes from My Journey, →ISBN, page 39:

     How many will say I want to be a good example for my children?

   • 2011, Ian Angus & ‎Simon Butler, Too Many People?, →ISBN:

     How many people Earth can support depends in part on how many will wear cotton and how many polyester; on how many will eat meat and how many bean sprouts; on how many will want parks and how many will want parking lots.

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