Sentence:  Prohibition was the law of the land , but it was unpopular ( how <WSD>many</WSD> of us oldsters took up drinking in prohibition days , drinking was so gay , so fashionable , especially in the sophisticated Northeast ! ) 
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