en masse

American  

[ahn mas, en, ahn mas] / ɑn ˈmæs, ɛn, ɑ̃ ˈmas /

adverb

1. in a mass; all together; as a group.

   The people rushed to the gate en masse.

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en masse British  

/ ɑ̃ mas /

adverb

1. in a group, body, or mass; as a whole; all together

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en masse Cultural  

1. A French phrase meaning “in a large body”: “The protesters left en masse for the White House.”

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en masse Idioms  

1. In one group or body; all together. For example, The activists marched en masse to the capitol. This French term, with exactly the same meaning, was adopted into English about 1800.

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Etymology

Origin of en masse

Borrowed into English from French around 1795–1805

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

en masse

The BBC has seen evidence that oil is being smuggled across the border from Iran to Pakistan en masse by bikers, some as young as 15.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

In hard-hit areas like Le Porge, experts say insects will have perished en masse and larger creatures from toads to lizards will not have been spared either.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

Even more egregious is the case of AI companies buying and destroying rare books en masse in the process of scanning them for data.

From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026

The company had designed an Ascend AI chip that, on paper, matched Nvidia’s top chip at the time, but it never got to produce the chip en masse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

The guys, as other officers had noted, were just doing what we’d been taught to do inside prison when one of us was threatened: respond en masse.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Related Words

• altogether