masses Meaning, Definition & Usage

1. noun the common people generally
   people; the great unwashed; mass; hoi polloi; multitude.
   
   • separate the warriors from the mass
   • power to the people
2. noun the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
   mass.
   
3. noun (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
   plenty; great deal; pot; sight; flock; mint; slew; mountain; deal; wad; muckle; pile; lot; mickle; raft; quite a little; passel; hatful; mess; spate; heap; peck; stack; good deal; batch; tidy sum; mass.
   
   • a batch of letters
   • a deal of trouble
   • a lot of money
   • he made a mint on the stock market
   • see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos
   • it must have cost plenty
   • a slew of journalists
   • a wad of money
4. noun an ill-structured collection of similar things (objects or people)
   mass.
   
5. noun (Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches) the celebration of the Eucharist
   Mass.
   
6. noun a body of matter without definite shape
   mass.
   
   • a huge ice mass
7. noun the property of something that is great in magnitude
   bulk; volume; mass.
   
   • it is cheaper to buy it in bulk
   • he received a mass of correspondence
   • the volume of exports
8. noun a musical setting for a Mass
   Mass.
   
   • they played a Mass composed by Beethoven
9. noun a sequence of prayers constituting the Christian Eucharistic rite
   Mass.
   
   • the priest said Mass
10. noun a shot in billiards made by hitting the cue ball with the cue held nearly vertically; the cue ball spins around another ball before hitting the object ball
    masse; masse shot.
    
11. verb join together into a mass or collect or form a mass
    mass.
    
    • Crowds were massing outside the palace

WordNet