Sentence:  It was a word he was proud of , a word that meant <WSD>much</WSD> to him , and he used it with great pleasure , almost as if it were an exclusive possession , and more : he sensed himself to be very highly educated , four cuts above any of the folks back home . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (quantifier used with mass nouns) great in quantity or degree or extent