What did Evangelist Luke mean by ‘many’ in his introductory statement?

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We see the introductory paragraph of the Gospel according to Luke, as follows:

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us,

Luke 1 – NRSV

Given that the Catholic Church recognizes , as Canonical, only three Gospels other than the one according to Luke, the phrase "many have undertaken" as used by Luke sounds to be out of place, in that he could have used "a few". I wish to know what the exact word corresponding to the English "many" as used by Luke in the original text was, and what the interpretations of that word are.