a person whose trade is building with units of various natural or artificial mineral products, as stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or tiles, usually with the use of mortar or cement as a bonding agent.
a person who dresses stones or bricks.
(initial capital letter) a Freemason.
Bobbie Ann, born 1940, U.S. short-story writer and novelist.
Charles, 1730–87, English astronomer and surveyor.
George, 1725–92, American statesman.
Lowell, 1792–1872, U.S. hymnist and educator.
Dame Sandra Prunella, born 1949, Barbadian politician: 1st president of Barbados since 2021.
a male given name.
a person skilled in building with stone
a person who dresses stone
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English machun, mason, from Old French machun, masson, from Frankish makjon (unrecorded) “maker,” derivative of makōn “to make”; see make 1
If you spent the summer building a beautiful stone wall around your backyard, you may have a future as a mason, someone who builds things out of brick or stone. Usage experts can’t quite agree on the origins of the word mason. Some believe that it traces back to the German word mahhon, meaning "to make." True or not, it’s a good way to remember the meaning of mason: masons make things out of brick or stone. A mason is a skilled craftsperson who might, for example, carve stone for a memorial or do work on the brick walls of a house.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Pappu Verma, a mason, now works from 7am until noon, then again from 4pm until 7pm.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
We loaded them into a giant mason jar, but it was too late.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Hockey is like that of a medieval mason who helped lay a forgotten stone in a cathedral’s foundation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
It’s a high-tech twist on the classic mason jar, using a silicone lid with a degassing valve and an AirGone Argon Gas Canister to flush out oxygen.
From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025
Some jars are simple glass mason jars, others are glazed ceramic jars or ornate frosted glass.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
A family reunification site was established at Fort Mason.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Mr. Kontorovich is a professor at George Mason University and a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Organized by curator emeritus Mason Klein, in collaboration with the Zentrum Paul Klee and the Kunstmuseum Bern, it begins with works from 1903 into the 1920s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Another reader stores leftovers and produce in Mason jars or reusable silicone bags instead of disposable zip-top bags.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
And the feeling was that much worse now that I knew Elliot Mason was sitting in the front row.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Before that he was a young boy, born on Halloween, frolicking among unmarked headstones as the son of funerary masons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Among the finds at the dig were a section of wall, cut stones with a masons mark, pottery, slate and a Henry III coin dating from around 1270.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2025
The tiles must be removed by trained masons, and Save the Tiles now has four crews ready every day, made up of volunteers and workers whose employers are covering their wages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2025
Last summer, the first five women graduated from that state’s program, a partnership between the corrections department and the ironworkers, bricklayers and cement masons unions, which offer direct or preferred entry to graduates.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 14, 2024
One by one the cut stones of the ribs, called voussoirs, were hoisted onto the centering and mortared into place by the masons.
From "Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction" by David Macaulay
Flask Walk, which leads out of the high street among old houses and greeneries, brings us to the shadowy Well Walk, with its overarching trees and with many living memories masoned into its dead walls.
From A Literary Pilgrimage Among the Haunts of Famous British Authors by Wolfe, Theodore F. (Theodore Frelinghuysen)
"It stood there," he indicated a fallen shed beyond a masoned channel, choked with the broken stones of its walls and tangled shrubbery.
From The Three Black Pennys A Novel by Hergesheimer, Joseph
It was discovered about forty years ago, and it may be seen in the vestry within the Norman chapter-house, where it is masoned into the wall over the chimney-piece.
From Anglo-Saxon Literature by Earle, John
The stream poured solid and green through the narrow, masoned course of the forebay, sweeping in a lucent arc over the lip of the fall.
From The Three Black Pennys A Novel by Hergesheimer, Joseph
So, in the end, I masoned up my lockers and pantries; and save the two used for mittens, the white jacket ever after was pocketless.
From White Jacket or, the World on a Man-of-War by Melville, Herman
She was doing mason's work; and, once on that tack, guided by the unconscious impulse, she has to keep masoning, even though her labour be useless, superfluous and opposed to her interests.
From The Mason-Bees by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
A moment comes, presently, when the harvesting is interrupted and the masoning resumed.
From The Mason-Bees by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
No matter: the Bee who was masoning will mason.
From The Mason-Bees by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
