Sentence:  For <WSD>many</WSD> years the Northwest Company had its southern headquarters at Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River , some 300 miles southeast of present-day St. Paul , Minnesota . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  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