more

To a greater degree or extent.

Adjective

  1. comparative degree of many: in greater number. (Used for a discrete quantity.)
    • Last year’s applications received from new and returning students were more than each of the previous four years.
  2. comparative degree of much: in greater quantity, amount, or proportion. (Used for a continuous quantity.)

Origin

From Middle English more, from Old English māra (“more”), from Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō, from Proto-Germanic *maizô (“more”), from Proto-Indo-European *mē- (“many”). Cognate with Scots mair (“more”), Saterland Frisian moor (“more”), West Frisian mear (“more”), Dutch meer (“more”), Low German mehr (“more”), German mehr (“more”), Danish mere (“more”), Swedish mera (“more”), Norwegian Bokmål mer (“more”), Norwegian Nynorsk meir (“more”), Faroese and Icelandic meira (“more”).

Forms

mo mo' moh moar

Related

most

Adverb

  1. To a greater degree or extent.
    • I like cake, but I like chocolate more.
    • I could no more climb that than fly!
    • More advanced students.
  2. Used to form the comparative form of adjectives and adverbs.
    • You're a great deal more beautiful than I ever imagined.
    • I am much more eager to help than you.
    • Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified...
  3. In negative constructions: any further, any longer; any more.
    • Than was there pees betwyxte thys erle and thys Aguaurs, and grete surete that the erle sholde never warre agaynste hym more. - 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum ii”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XV,...
  4. Used in addition to an inflected comparative form.
    • I was more better at English than you.

Forms

mo mo' moh moar

Derived

more or less more so

Determiner

  1. comparative degree of many: in greater number. (Used for a discrete quantity.)
    • There are more ways to do this than I can count.
    • One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination. -...
  2. comparative degree of much: in greater quantity, amount, or proportion. (Used for a continuous quantity.)
    • There's more caffeine in my coffee than in the coffee you get in most places.
    • Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated...
  3. Additional; further.
    • If you run out, there are more bandages in the first aid cupboard.
    • More people are arriving.
    • I want more soup.
  4. Bigger, stronger, or more valuable.
    • He is more than the ten years he spent behind bars at our local prison, as he is a changed man and his past does not define him.

Forms

mo mo' moh moar

Antonyms

fewer less

Derived

all the more anymore any more for any more bite off more than one can chew B-more bollocks more like couldn't be more different cut off more than one can chew delay no more do more harm than good ever-more for ever more four more years growmore have got more chins than a Chinese phone book have got more chins than a Chinese phonebook have got more chins than Chinatown have more chins than a Chinese phone book have more chins than a Chinese phonebook have more chins than Chinatown have more money than God have one more time honey catches more flies than vinegar lies beget more lies

Noun obsolete

  1. A carrot; a parsnip.
  2. A root; stock.
  3. A plant; flower; shrub.

Origin

From Middle English more, moore (“root”), from Old English more, moru (“carrot, parsnip”) from Proto-West Germanic *morhā, from Proto-Germanic *murhǭ (“carrot”), from Proto-Indo-European *merk- (“edible herb, tuber”). Akin to Old Saxon moraha (“carrot”), Old High German morha, moraha (“root of a plant or tree”) (German Möhre (“carrot”), Morchel (“mushroom, morel”)). More at morel.

Forms

mores moor

Noun form of, nonstandard

  1. singular of mores
    • In the 1990s, smoking is considered dumb and a symbol of bad health habits, replete with the Surgeon General’s warnings. But even this belief is a social more, subject to time. Maybe some future society will consider...
    • A value is a social more or norm manifested as a result of history and culture. It is a shared understanding among people of what is good, desirable or just. - 2004, Robert S. Pomeroy, John E. Parks, Lani M. Watson,...
    • Given that emotions such as shame, guilt, embarrassment and others involve a violation of a social more or rule, these are often called the social emotions, self-conscious emotions or secondary emotions. - 2008, David...

Origin

Back-formation from mores.

Forms

mores

Pronoun

  1. A greater number or quantity (of something).
    • We’re running out of napkins. I should have bought more.
    • There isn’t enough salt in this. You need to add more.
    • I'd love to see more of Bob and Linda.
  2. An extra or additional quantity (of something).
    • There aren’t many people here yet, but more should be arriving soon.
    • Speaking about Canada, where I teach, while the canon remains the raison d’etre of the discipline, some changes have come about and more are in the offing. - 2016, Arun P. Mukherjee, “English Studies in Contemporary...

Forms

mo mo' moh moar

Derived

less is more more's the pity more than one bargained for say no more the more the merrier

Verb

  1. To root up.

Origin

From Middle English moren, from the noun. See above.

Forms

mores moring mored