mass

To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to assemble.

Adjective

  1. Involving a mass of things; concerning a large quantity or number.
    • There is evidence of mass extinctions in the distant past.
    • The national liberation movement had not yet developed to a sufficiently mass scale. - 1988, V. V. Zagladin, Vitaly Baskakov, International Working Class and Communist Movement: Historical Record, 1830s to Mid-1940s,...
    • With perhaps unprecedented magnitude and clarity, Auschwitz brings theologians and philosophers face to face with the facts of suffering on an incredibly mass scale, with issues poignantly raised concerning the absence...
  2. Involving a mass of people; of, for, or by the masses.
    • Mass unemployment resulted from the financial collapse.
    • Every agency is sold on use of mass media today — or at least, it thinks it is — and what can be "masser" than television? - 1958, Child Welfare, volume 37, page 2:
    • While agreeing with Bell on the unlikelihood that any fully mass — in the sense of atomized and alienated — society has ever existed,⁵ I believe that at any point in time, in any social system, some elements may be...

Origin

In late Middle English (circa 1400) as masse in the sense of "lump, quantity of matter", from Anglo-Norman masse, in Old French attested from the 11th century, via late Latin massa (“lump, dough”), from Ancient Greek μᾶζα (mâza, “barley-cake, lump (of dough)”). The Greek noun may be derived from the verb μάσσω (mássō, “to knead”), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *maǵ- (“to oil, knead”), although this is uncertain. Doublet of masa. The sense of "a large number or quantity" arises circa 1580. The scientific sense is from 1687 (as Latin massa) in the works of Isaac Newton, with the first English use (as mass) occurring in 1704.

Forms

masser massest

Derived

mass burial mass communication mass culture mass destruction mass difference mass extinction mass favourite mass funeral mass grave mass haul diagram mass hysteria mass market mass media mass medium mass murder mass murderer mass-produce mass production mass report mass shooter mass shooting mass spam mass start mass starvation

Noun countable, physical

  1. Matter, material.
    • And if it were not for theſe Principles the Bodies of the Earth, Planets, Comets, Sun, and all things in them would grow cold and freeze, and become inactive Maſſes ; […]. - 1718 [1704], Isaac Newton, Opticks, 2nd...
    • […] and because a deep mass of continual sea is slower stirred to rage. - 1821 [1582], George Buchanan, The History of Scotland, from the Earliest Accounts of that Nation, to the Reign of King James VI, volume 1 (in...

    1. A quantity of matter cohering so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size.

    2. (obsolete) Precious metal, especially gold or silver.

      • Right in the midst the Goddesse selfe did stand / Upon an altar of some costly masse […]. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10:

    3. (physics) A measure of the inertia of a mass of matter, one of four fundamental properties of matter. SI unit of mass: kilogram.

    4. (pharmacology) A medicinal substance made into a cohesive, homogeneous lump, of consistency suitable for making pills.

      • blue mass

    5. (medicine) A palpable or visible abnormal globular structure; a tumor.

    6. (bodybuilding) Excess body mass, especially in the form of muscle hypertrophy.

      • After all, muscle maniacs go "ga ga" over mass no matter how it's presented. - 1988, Steve Holman, “Christian Conquers Columbus”, in Ironman, volume 47, number 6, pages 28–34:
  2. A large quantity; a sum.
    • […]he hath discovered to me the way to five or six of the richest mines which the Spaniard hath, and whence all the mass of gold that comes into Spain in effect is drawn. - 1829, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Works of Sir...
    • For though he had spent a huge mass of treasure in transporting his army, […]. - 1869, Alexander George Richey, Lectures on the History of Ireland: Down to A. D. 1534, page 204:

    1. Bulk; magnitude; body; size.

      • Witness this army of such mass and charge / Led by a delicate and tender prince, - c. 1599-1601, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 4, scene 4:

    2. The principal part; the main body.

      • Night closed upon the pursuit, and aided the mass of the fugitives in their escape. - 1881, Thucydides, translated by Benjamin Jowett, Thucydides translated into English, volume 1, page 310:

    3. A large body of individuals, especially persons.

      • The mass of spectators didn't see the infraction on the field.
      • A mass of ships converged on the beaches of Dunkirk.
      • Generals gathered in their masses / Just like witches at black masses - 1970, “War Pigs”, in Paranoid, performed by Black Sabbath:

    4. (in the plural) The lower classes of persons.

      • The masses are revolting.

Forms

masses

Related

slug pound ounce long ton (1.12 short tons) short ton gram kilogram metric ton

Derived

active gravitational mass admass airmass air mass atomic mass biomass blue mass bodymass center of mass centre of mass comass conservation of mass coronal mass ejection critical mass dendromass downmass dry mass Earth mass eggmass eigenmass gravitational mass groundmass inertial mass isomass

Noun Christianity

  1. The Eucharist, now especially in Roman Catholicism.
  2. Celebration of the Eucharist.
  3. The main kind of church service, in some denominations.
    • She went to mass every Sunday for many years, and when she retired, she took to going on some weekdays, too.

    Hypernyms: church service

  4. The sacrament of the Eucharist.
  5. A musical setting of parts of the mass.

Origin

From Middle English messe, masse, from Old English mæsse (“the mass, church festival”) and Old French messe, from Vulgar Latin *messa (“Eucharist, dismissal”), from Late Latin missa, noun use of feminine past participle of classical Latin mittere (“to send”), from ite, missa est (“go, (the assembly) is dismissed”), reanalyzed as "go, [that] is the missa", last words of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Compare Dutch mis (“mass”), German Messe (“mass”), Danish messe (“mass”), Swedish mässa (“mass; expo”), Icelandic messa (“mass”). More at mission.

Forms

masses

Derived

admass Christmas comass dendromass downmass eggmass eigenmass groundmass isomass Martinmas -mas mascon maskin masscom masscult massful mass-goer massgoer massic massification massifier massify masslike massly

Verb Entry 4

  1. To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to assemble.
    • They would unavoidably mix up the whole of these declarations, and mass them together, although the Judge might direct the Jury not to do so. - 1829, William Burke, John Macnee, Trial of William Burke and Helen...
    • Every bend on the hill had acted like a funnel to mass them together in this peculiar way. - 1857, Edward Henry Nolan, The Illustrated History of the War against Russia, Parts 93-111, page 432:
    • Where there is too great a repetition of forms, light and shade will break them up or mass them together. - 1869, H. P. Robinson, Pictorial Effect in Photography: Being Hints on Composition and Chiariscuro for...

Forms

masses massing massed

Synonyms

round up weigh

Verb intransitive, obsolete

  1. To celebrate mass.
    • massing priests - [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):

Forms

masses massing massed

Wikipedia

mass