Jump To:

• mass
  mass

  noun

  a body of coherent matter, usually of indefinite shape and often of considerable size.
• Mass
  Mass

  noun

  the celebration of the Eucharist.
• Mass.
  Mass.

  abbreviation

  Massachusetts.

Trivia Time

Which scientist is famous for linking mass and energy?

Test Your Knowledge

mass

¹ American  

[mas] / mæs /

noun

• masses
  plural

1. a body of coherent matter, usually of indefinite shape and often of considerable size.

   a mass of dough.

2. Medicine/Medical, Pathology. an abnormal lump in the body, often in the form of a cyst or tumor.

   The mass they removed was alarmingly large, but the great news is that it was benign.

3. a collection of incoherent particles, parts, or objects regarded as forming one body.

   a mass of sand.

   Synonyms:

   congeries, heap, assemblage

4. aggregate; whole (usually preceded byin the ).

   People, in the mass, mean well.

5. a considerable assemblage, number, or quantity: a mass of troops.

   a mass of errors;

   a mass of troops.

   Synonyms:

   conglomeration, pile, accumulation, collection

6. bulk, size, expanse, or massiveness.

   towers of great mass and strength.

   Synonyms:

   dimension, magnitude

7. Fine Arts.

   1. Painting. an expanse of color or tone that defines form or shape in general outline rather than in detail.

   2. a shape or three-dimensional volume that has or gives the illusion of having weight, density, and bulk.

8. the main body, bulk, or greater part of anything.

   the great mass of American films.

   Synonyms:

   majority

9. Physics. the quantity of matter as determined from its weight or from Newton's second law of motion. m

10. Pharmacology. a preparation of thick, pasty consistency, from which pills are made.

11. the masses, the ordinary or common people as a whole; the working classes or the lower social classes.

    Synonyms:

    plebeians, proletariat

---

adjective

1. 1. pertaining to, involving, or affecting a large number of people.

      mass unemployment;

      mass migrations.

   2. affecting a number of people, but more than two and typically a large number: a mass shooting.

      mass murder;

      a mass shooting.

2. participated in or performed by a large number of people, especially together in a group: mass suicide.

   mass demonstrations;

   mass suicide.

3. pertaining to, involving, or characteristic of the mass of the people: a movie designed to appeal to a mass audience.

   the mass mind;

   a movie designed to appeal to a mass audience.

4. reaching or designed to reach a large number of people.

   television, newspapers, and other means of mass communication.

5. done on a large scale or in large quantities.

   mass destruction.

verb (used without object)

• masses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• massed,
  past participle,  past
• massing
  present participle

1. to come together in or form a mass or masses.

   The clouds are massing in the west.

verb (used with object)

• masses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• massed,
  past participle,  past
• massing
  present participle

1. to gather into or dispose in a mass or masses; assemble.

   The houses are massed in blocks.

   Synonyms:

   aggregate, amass, marshal, collect

   Antonyms:

   disperse

Mass ² American  

[mas] / mæs /

noun

1. the celebration of the Eucharist.

2. (sometimes lowercase) a musical setting of certain parts of this service, as the Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei.

---

Mass. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Massachusetts.

---

mass ¹ British  

/ mæs /

noun

1. a large coherent body of matter without a definite shape

2. a collection of the component parts of something

3. a large amount or number, such as a great body of people

4. the main part or majority

   the mass of the people voted against the government's policy

5. in the main; collectively

6. the size of a body; bulk

7. physics a physical quantity expressing the amount of matter in a body. It is a measure of a body's resistance to changes in velocity (inertial mass) and also of the force experienced in a gravitational field (gravitational mass): according to the theory of relativity, inertial and gravitational masses are equal See also inertial mass gravitational mass

8. (in painting, drawing, etc) an area of unified colour, shade, or intensity, usually denoting a solid form or plane

9. pharmacol a pastelike composition of drugs from which pills are made

10. mining an irregular deposit of ore not occurring in veins

---

1. done or occurring on a large scale

   mass hysteria

   mass radiography

2. consisting of a mass or large number, esp of people

   a mass meeting

verb

1. to form (people or things) or (of people or things) to join together into a mass

   the crowd massed outside the embassy

Mass. ² British  

abbreviation

1. Massachusetts

---

Mass ³ British  

/ mæs, mɑːs /

noun

1. (in the Roman Catholic Church and certain Protestant Churches) the celebration of the Eucharist See also High Mass Low Mass

2. a musical setting of those parts of the Eucharistic service sung by choir or congregation

---

mass Scientific  

/ măs /

1. A measure of the amount of matter contained in or constituting a physical body. In classical mechanics, the mass of an object is related to the force required to accelerate it and hence is related to its inertia, and is essential to Newton's laws of motion. Objects that have mass interact with each other through the force of gravity. In Special Relativity, the observed mass of an object is dependent on its velocity with respect to the observer, with higher velocity entailing higher observed mass. Mass is measured in many different units; in most scientific applications, the SI unit of kilogram is used.

2. See Note at weight See also rest energy General Relativity

---

Mass ¹ Cultural  

1. In music, a musical setting for the texts used in the Christian Church at the celebration of the Mass, or sacrament of Communion. Most Masses have been written for use in the Roman Catholic Church.

---

Mass ² Cultural  

1. The common name in the Roman Catholic Church, and among some members of the Anglican Communion, for the sacrament of Communion.

---

mass ³ Cultural  

1. In physics, the property of matter that measures its resistance to acceleration. Roughly, the mass of an object is a measure of the number of atoms in it. The basic unit of measurement for mass is the kilogram. (See Newton's laws of motion; compare weight.)

---

Synonym Usage

See size ¹.

Discover More

Many composers have written Masses; among them are Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Leonard Bernstein, and Duke Ellington.

In the Middle Ages in England, mass meant a religious feast day in honor of a specific person; thus, “Christ's Mass,” or Christmas, is the feast day of Christ; and Michaelmas is the feast day of the angel Michael.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• massed
  adjective
• unmassed
  adjective
• massedly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• masses
  plural

Participles

• massing
  present
• massed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• mass
  simple
• masses
  simple
• have massed
  perfect
• has massed
  perfect
• am massing
  progressive
• are massing
  progressive
• is massing
  progressive
• have been massing
  perfect progressive
• has been massing
  perfect progressive

Past

• massed
  simple
• had massed
  perfect
• was massing
  progressive
• were massing
  progressive
• had been massing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will mass
  simple
• will have massed
  perfect
• will be massing
  progressive
• will have been massing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of mass¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English masse, from Latin massa “mass,” from Greek mâza “barley cake,” akin to mássein “to knead”

Origin of Mass²

First recorded before 900; Middle English masse, Old English mæsse, from Vulgar Latin messa (unrecorded), from Late Latin missa, feminine of Latin missus “sent,” past participle of mittere “to send, dismiss”; perhaps extracted from a phrase in the service containing a feminine subject and missa est “(it) is sent”

Explanation

Anything that has weight and shape has mass. In fact, mass is the quality that gives things weight anywhere there's gravity. If you think about mass being about weight and shape, you can see how many of its meanings are related. If something is very big we say it has great mass — or is massive. If we talk about a large group of people, we talk about a mass demonstration or a mass of demonstrators. We refer to poor or common people as the masses — there are a lot of them. Doctors refer to tumors inside our bodies as masses.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mass Mass Mass. masses massed massing

“What I watch for is lean mass loss, which matters more in someone with inflammatory arthritis than in the general population, because muscle is what protects the joint,” she says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

Reducing Menin in younger mice increased hypothalamic inflammation and brought on several aging-related traits, including lower bone mass, thinner skin, cognitive decline, and a modestly shorter lifespan.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026

“As writing becomes mass production, the words under the suspicious byline are also losing their value,” Mr. Posner wrote in 1988.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

"I simply want to measure, for the first time, whether the equivalence between gravitational and inertial mass also applies to the second generation of particles -- this alone is quite an inspiring piece of work."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026

His round head was a mass of golden curls.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck

Last month, he introduced the “Protection From Mass Surveillance Ordinance,” which doesn’t mention Flock by name but would pull funding from municipalities that continue to use the company’s cameras.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

Dr Leonardo Riella, from the centre for transplantation sciences at Mass General Brigham said the shortage of organs available for transplant meant " we are in a crisis".

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

Researchers from the University of Liverpool's Mass Spectrometry Research Group conducted protein sequencing and mass spectrometry tests.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026

On a recent Sunday, he officiated a packed Mass at the church of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle in Macuto, a city known for its seaside boulevard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

I liked looking for eggs and going to Mass too.

From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez

Sheeran’s Loop Tour is headed to Kraft’s stadium in Foxborough, Mass., for concerts on Sept. 25 and 26.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Implicity, an AI-driven cardiac remote monitoring provider based in Paris and Cambridge, Mass., closed a $40 million growth equity round led by IRIS.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

The company said products are moving through its distribution network at or above normal levels as the Marlborough, Mass., company works to fulfill customer orders, reduce backlogs and accelerate the delivery of products.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

The company late Wednesday said products are moving through its distribution network at or above normal levels as the Marlborough, Mass., company works to fulfill customer orders, reduce backlogs and accelerate the delivery of products.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

An hour ago she had declined to go to Meeting, saying airily that she and her grandfather had seldom attended divine service, except for the Christmas Mass. What an uproar she had caused!

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare

He loved crime stories in which the culprit was the slippery masses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

These two contributions have different effective masses and can interfere with each other.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 5, 2026

On Martha’s Vineyard, “beach keys” are the ultimate status symbol, giving affluent property owners entry to secluded stretches of sand that are off-limits to the masses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

But the task is complicated by the fact that risks are dispersed across the Himalayas, while a 2015 earthquake destabilized many rock masses on the southern slopes, the embassy said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

“John! Natalie!” the voice repeated, and I turned to see Mikayla’s mom, shouldering her way through the masses, eyes trained on me.

From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller

The overall sound is highly dramatic, with massed voices, quaking beats, horses whinnying in the distance, and percussion that evokes the threat of a rattlesnake.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Not surprisingly, massed strings play a defining role, with well-integrated keyboard parts enlivening the musical landscape.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

Tens of thousands of demonstrators massed in central Belgrade Saturday to renew calls for early elections that grew out of the anti-corruption movement sparked by a deadly rail station disaster.

From Barron's ● May 23, 2026

Playing on the title, it opens with a big gospel organ and a massed chorus, before a handbrake turn into lip-smacking rap.

From BBC ● May 8, 2026

The military band was playing and the crowd was massed on the far side of the square where the fireworks specialist and his son were trying to send up fire balloons.

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

Tankers are already massing outside the Strait to fill up.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026

Many of the fishing boats involved in the December and January massing events were likely part of China's maritime militia, some experts said.

From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026

Now troops are massing near the border region, raising concerns that Ethiopia’s long-term ambitions will feed into a long-running conflict with ethnic Tigrayan rebels, who dominate the Ethiopian side of the frontier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026

General Oleksandr Syrskyi admitted Russian infantry was massing in the area and said he had visited the frontline himself for talks with key commanders.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2025

She felt it gathering in strength, like massing thunderclouds, and then it turned its attention, abruptly, to her.

From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo

Related Words

• crowd
• group
• horde
• lot
• lump
• majority
• mob
• number
• piece
• pile
• throng