Recently I was chastised “a lot” for using “a lot” in my writing. While the vague measurement is now over-used and abused, I was reprimanded to not use a lot a lot. I pass this writing wisdom and grammar greatness onto you.

“A lot” is a piece of property, typically land. It is also used to represent multiple items in a collection at an auction or any collection of items or people. Lot was also the nephew of Abraham whose wife turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back after being specifically instructed against such treachery, which has nothing to do with casting your lot, taking a chance or making a decision based upon the random generation of a number of objects such as pebbles, coins, straw, or dice.

Today’s dictionaries include the definition of “a large number or amount; a great deal; much,” but old English professors still claim that this is an atrocious use of the words, and demand alternatives, as well as removal of the various twisted forms of “a lot” such as alot, lotsa, and lotta, which send spell checkers into a lot of fits.

So what are a lot of alternatives to “a lot?”

Impertinent Remarks by Laura Hale Brockway offered 32 alternatives to help us a lot. They include:

a good deal
a great deal
a large number
ample
bunches
enormous amount
heaps
infinite
loads
many
masses
much
plenty
reams
scads
several
slew
surplus

She also offers example sentences:

“Our style guide does not appear to be used by many people.”
“I try not to ask for any help from the IT Department.”

Thesaurus.com offers these alternatives:

enough
full
abundant
adequate
considerable
copious
countless
endless
everywhere
extravagant
galore
generous
immeasurable
jam-packed
lavish
mega
oodles
profuse
satisfying
sizable
slathers
substantial
sufficient
voluminous

I decided to test out a few more sentences of my own and play around with the various synonyms.

• He uses the phone a good deal.
• He uses the phone a great deal.
• He uses the phone a large number.
• He uses the phone ample.
• He uses the phone bunches.
• He uses the phone an enormous amount.
• He uses the phone heaps.
• He uses the phone infinite.
• He uses the phone loads.
• He uses the phone many.
• He uses the phone masses.
• He uses the phone much.
• He uses the phone plenty.
• He uses the phone reams.
• He uses the phone scads.
• He uses the phone several.
• He uses the phone a slew.
• He uses the phone surplus.
• He uses the phone enough.
• He uses the phone full.
• He uses the phone endless.
• He uses the phone everywhere.
• He uses the phone extravagant.
• He uses the phone jam-packed.
• He uses the phone lavish.
• He uses the phone mega.
• He uses the phone oodles.
• He uses the phone slathers.
• He uses the phone substantially.
• He uses the phone voluminously.

Some worked in this sentence structure, some clearly didn’t. Some are actually very funny.

Let’s try again and incorporate the alternative for “a lot” in a preposition.

• I avoid asking for a good deal of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for a great deal of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for a large number of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for ample of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for bunches of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for enormous amount of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for heaps of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for infinite of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for loads of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for reams of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for scads of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for several of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for slew of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for surplus of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for copious of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for countless of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for endless of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for everywhere of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for extravagant of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for galore of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for generous of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for immeasurable of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for jam-packed of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for lavish of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for mega of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for oodles of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for slathers of help with my computer.
• I avoid asking for voluminously of help with my computer.

Clearly, these synonyms for “a lot” don’t slip right into place as replacements. They take a lot of fuss to make sense out of I avoid asking for jam-packed of help with my computer.. It’s a lot to ask to for every replacement to replace well.

However you search and replace your lots, you shouldn’t have a lot of excuses for using a lot a lot.