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• 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.

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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

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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.

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Mass. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Massachusetts.

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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

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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  

/ 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

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Mass. ³ British  

abbreviation

1. Massachusetts

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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

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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”

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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

The Higgs boson is a fundamental particle associated with the mechanism that gives many elementary particles their mass.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026

The unrest in Germany follows similar youth-led mass protests in France, where more than 320,000 people also demonstrated on Saturday.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

A mass rally centered on Belgrade’s Slavija Square in March 2025 drew hundreds of thousands in one of the largest protests in modern Serbian history.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

“We need to pay for our roads and our bridges and our highways. We need to pay for mass transit. You can’t do it if you don’t have the money,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026

“There’s a mass and then a big party. Everyone gets dressed up and dances a lot. It’s supposed to mark the transition to womanhood. My grandmother has been planning mine since I was, like, two.”

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

Raman attended Mass at 9 a.m., then chatted with parishioners in English and Spanish and grabbed food from a taco stand set up in the church’s courtyard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026

Noon Mass was about to begin when Ms. Machado entered the church.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

Residents and local officials gathered on Saturday in a Spanish village near the site of a high-speed train collision that killed at least 69 people for a memorial Mass honouring the victims.

From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026

The research was led by scientists at the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute and involved teams working across three continents.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026

On a spring morning in 1478, Lorenzo de’ Medici, or Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his brother Giuliano, the golden boy of the Medici family, arrived for Mass at the Duomo, the iconic Florence cathedral.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

The family put down roots in Burlington, Mass., a Boston suburb.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

Moderna’s stock fell around 25%, putting the Cambridge, Mass., biotech on pace for its largest decrease since it went public.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

The 20-year-old social media star reportedly arrived on Thursday at the courthouse in Orleans, Mass., walking a dog that barked at reporters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who promised to freeze rent during his campaign, is the most well-known in this category, and there have been wins for renter-candidates in cities like Cambridge, Mass., and Seattle.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

In other neighborhoods, a quarter attend Mass. Neighbors confronted the priest.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

Their analysis ruled out planets with masses equal to or greater than Jupiter's within specific parts of the system.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026

Foid, like the rest of incel language, has become something of a reclaimed meme to the wider masses.

From Slate ● Oct. 29, 2026

Their flag-draped coffins were carried through the gathered masses, which included numerous religious figures and a large security presence, AFP images showed.

From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026

While stalwarts like Golden Corral, the national chain with roughly 350 U.S. locations, cater to the budget-minded masses, the buffetscape contains smaller businesses and newer arrivals that have become favorites in their own right.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

I don’t think it was equipped to handle even a fraction of the masses here.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Stefano Utoikamanu streaked through after Isaiya Katoa's superb inside pass cut out George Williams and Kai Pearce-Paul, to the delight of the massed Tongan fans in Perth.

From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026

A day before that incident, hundreds of masked protesters massed in Dover, further east, briefly blocking access to the town's busy Channel port to demonstrate against migrant crossings.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 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 allied troops were massed on Iraq and Kuwait's borders for the ground war, which was still nine days away.

From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2026

“Bedstraw,” she said, pointing to a tall plant massed with golden blossoms.

From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry

Tankers are already massing outside the Strait to fill up.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026

Mr. Bernthal, an Emmy winner for “The Bear,” imbues Sonny with a pinballing energy as he gabbles orders at the hostages and begins flailing negotiations with the cops massing outside.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 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

He also didn’t know that dozens of Border Patrol agents were massing nearby.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2025

"Bolton's bastard is massing men at the Dreadfort," she warned them.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

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Related Words

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