mass shooting

American

[mas shoot-ing] / ˈmæs ˈʃut ɪŋ /

noun

a single incident involving the shooting with one or more firearms of a number of people, but more than two and typically a large number, especially when the victims are random.

There's news of a mass shooting at the stadium, with two fatalities and 25 injured.

Etymology

Origin of mass shooting

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

mass shooting

The site defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four victims are shot.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” OpenAI previously told local news station WEAR-TV in a statement.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 1, 2026

OpenAI didn’t discover the second until after Van Rootselaar was identified publicly as the suspect in the mass shooting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026

Seven lawsuits were filed in US court on Wednesday against OpenAI on behalf of families impacted by the February mass shooting in the small Canadian mining town of Tumbler Ridge.

From Barron's ● Apr. 29, 2026

The pit was filled with a white-hot mass shooting out little tongues of white flame, and throwing out a heat beside which the scorching sun was a pleasant relief.

From Modern Mythology by Lang, Andrew

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023