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masses
5 dictionary results for: masses
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
mass       (mās)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. A unified body of matter with no specific shape: a mass of clay.
  2. A grouping of individual parts or elements that compose a unified body of unspecified size or quantity: "Take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates" (Herman Melville).
  3. A large but nonspecific amount or number: a mass of bruises.
  4. A lump or aggregate of coherent material: a cancerous mass.
  5. The principal part; the majority: the mass of the continent.
  6. The physical volume or bulk of a solid body.
  7. Abbr. m Physics A property of matter equal to the measure of an object's resistance to changes in either the speed or direction of its motion. The mass of an object is not dependent on gravity and therefore is different from but proportional to its weight.
  8. An area of unified light, shade, or color in a painting.
  9. Pharmacology A thick, pasty mixture containing drugs from which pills are formed.
  10. masses The body of common people or people of low socioeconomic status: "Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" (Emma Lazarus).

tr. & intr.v.   massed, mass·ing, mass·es
To gather or be gathered into a mass.

adj.  
  1. Of, relating to, characteristic of, directed at, or attended by a large number of people: mass education; mass communication.
  2. Done or carried out on a large scale: mass production.
  3. Total; complete: The mass result is impressive.


[Middle English masse, from Old French, from Latin massa, from Greek māza, maza; see mag- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Mass also mass       (mās)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
    1. Public celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant churches.
    2. The sacrament of the Eucharist.
  1. A musical setting of certain parts of the Mass, especially the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.


[Middle English masse, from Old English mæsse, from Vulgar Latin *messa, from Late Latin missa, from Latin, feminine past participle of mittere, to send away, dismiss.]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
mas·sé       (mā-sā')  Pronunciation Key 
n.   A stroke in billiards made by striking the cue ball off center with the cue held nearly vertically, so that the cue ball moves in a curve around one ball before hitting another ball.


[French, from past participle of masser, to make a massé shot, from masse, mace (an early form of billiard cue), from Old French, club; see mace1.]

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
masses

noun
the common people generally; "separate the warriors from the mass"; "power to the people" [syn: multitude

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
mass       (mās)  Pronunciation Key 
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. See Note at weight. See also rest energy, General Relativity.

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