Aimer = to love, like something / someone

Depending on context and whether you use it on its own, the verb aimer can mean to love something / someone, or to like something / someone.

Aimer - to love <someone> / <something>

Used on its own, aimer generally means 'to love' <someone> and 'to love or to like' (depending on intensity) <something>:

NOTE that you can also use the verb adorer to emphasise love of something or someone:

-> Here note that adorer does NOT mean "to be in love with", but expresses a strong liking of someone. 

 

When aimer is used in a question about something, it actually means "Do you like ...?" (for someone, it still means 'love'):

 

Aimer bien / beaucoup - to like <someone> / <something> (a lot)

Note that when using aimer bien, it actually lessens its meaning from 'to love' to 'to like' <someone> / <something>.

When you use aimer beaucoup, it means 'to like a lot' / 'to really like'.

ATTENTION: If you wanted to say "I love you very much" in French, you would use a different expression:

 

Ne pas aimer - to not love / like <someone> / <something>

ATTENTION: You cannot use aimer bien in a negative sentence (ne ... pas) in French. To express dislike, you will revert to using simply aimer with the negation ne ... pas, to say both "not love / not like", as such:

In this case, the context will remove ambiguity.

You can also use ne pas aimer beaucoup to say 'not like much'.
Note that beaucoup will come after pas:  

 

See also Using "plaire" to express liking something / someone