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The masses

 - 7 dictionary results

mass

  [mas]
Use The masses in a Sentence
–noun
1. a body of coherent matter, usually of indefinite shape and often of considerable size: a mass of dough.
2. a collection of incoherent particles, parts, or objects regarded as forming one body: a mass of sand.
3. aggregate; whole (usually prec. by in the): People, in the mass, mean well.
4. a considerable assemblage, number, or quantity: a mass of errors; a mass of troops.
5. bulk, size, expanse, or massiveness: towers of great mass and strength.
6. Fine Arts.
a. Painting. an expanse of color or tone that defines form or shape in general outline rather than in detail.
b. a shape or three-dimensional volume that has or gives the illusion of having weight, density, and bulk.
7. the main body, bulk, or greater part of anything: the great mass of American films.
8. Physics. the quantity of matter as determined from its weight or from Newton's second law of motion. Abbreviation: m Compare weight (def. 2), relativistic mass, rest mass.
9. Pharmacology. a preparation of thick, pasty consistency, from which pills are made.
10. the masses, the ordinary or common people as a whole; the working classes or the lower social classes.
–adjective
11. pertaining to, involving, or affecting a large number of people: mass unemployment; mass migrations; mass murder.
12. participated in or performed by a large number of people, esp. together in a group: mass demonstrations; mass suicide.
13. pertaining to, involving, or characteristic of the mass of the people: the mass mind; a movie designed to appeal to a mass audience.
14. reaching or designed to reach a large number of people: television, newspapers, and other means of mass communication.
15. done on a large scale or in large quantities: mass destruction.
–verb (used without object)
16. to come together in or form a mass or masses: The clouds are massing in the west.
–verb (used with object)
17. to gather into or dispose in a mass or masses; assemble: The houses are massed in blocks.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME masse < L massa mass < Gk mâza barley cake, akin to mássein to knead

Related forms:
mass⋅ed⋅ly  [mas-id-lee, mast-lee] , adverb

Synonyms:
2. assemblage, heap, congeries. 4. collection, accumulation, pile, conglomeration. 5. magnitude, dimension. See size 1 . 7. majority. 10. proletariat, plebeians. 17. collect, marshal, amass, aggregate.

Antonyms:
17. disperse.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Cultural Dictionary

mass

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.)

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

mass  (1)
"lump, quantity, size," c.1400, from O.Fr. masse "lump" (11c.), from L. massa "kneaded dough, lump, that which adheres together like dough," from Gk. maza "barley cake, lump, mass, ball," related to massein "to knead," from PIE base *mag-/*meg- "to knead" (cf. Lith. minkyti "to knead," see macerate). Sense extended 1585 to "a large quantity, amount, or number." Strict sense in physics is from 1704. Verb meaning "to gather in a mass" is attested from 1563. The masses "people of the lower class" is from 1837. Mass meeting is first attested 1733 in Amer.Eng.; mass production is from 1920; and mass media is first recorded 1923.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Legal Dictionary

Main Entry: mass
Function: adjective
: participated in by or affecting a large number of individuals <mass insurance underwriting> <mass tort litigation>
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: mass
Pronunciation: 'mas
Function: noun
1 : the property of a body that is a measure of its inertia, that is commonly taken as a measureof the amount of material it contains, that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field, and that along with length and time constitutes one of the fundamental quantities on which all physicalmeasurements are based
2 : a homogeneous pasty mixture compounded for making pills, lozenges, and plasters mass>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

mass (mās)
n.

  1. A unified body of matter with no specific shape.

  2. A grouping of individual parts or elements that compose a unified body of unspecified size or quantity.

  3. The physical volume or bulk of a solid body.


  4. Abbr. m The measure of the quantity of matter that a body or an object contains. The mass of the body is not dependent on gravity and therefore is different from but proportional to its weight.

  5. A thick, pasty pharmacological mixture containing drugs from which pills are formed.

  6. One of the seven fundamental SI units, the kilogram.

  7. See massa.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Idioms & Phrases

the masses

The body of common people, or people of low socioeconomic status, as in TV sitcoms are designed to appeal to the masses. This idiom is nearly always used in a snobbish context that puts down the taste, intelligence, or some other quality of the majority of people. W.S. Gilbert satirized this view in the peers' march in Iolanthe (1882), in which the lower-middle class and the masses are ordered to bow down before the peers. Prime Minister William Gladstone took a different view (Speech, 1886): "All the world over, I will back the masses against the [upper] classes." [First half of 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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