mass (n.)

  1. the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field

  2. (often followed by `of) a large number or amount or extent; 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

    [ Syn: batch , deal , flock , good deal , great deal , hatful , heap , lot , mess , mickle , mint , mountain , muckle , passel , peck , pile , plenty , pot , quite a little , raft , sight , slew , spate , stack , tidy sum , wad ]

  3. an ill-structured collection of similar things (objects or people)

  4. (Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches) the celebration of the Eucharist

    [ Syn: mass ]

  5. a body of matter without definite shape; a huge ice mass'

  6. the common people generally; separate the warriors from the mass; power to the people

    [ Syn: multitude , masses , hoi polloi , people , the great unwashed ]

  7. the property of something that is great in magnitude; it is cheaper to buy it in bulk; he received a mass of correspondence; the volume of exports

    [ Syn: bulk , volume ]

  8. a musical setting for a Mass; they played a Mass composed by Beethoven

    [ Syn: mass ]

  9. a sequence of prayers constituting the Christian Eucharistic rite; the priest said Mass

    [ Syn: mass ]

    mass (adj.)

  1. formed of separate units gathered into a mass or whole; aggregate expenses include expenses of all divisions combined for the entire year; the aggregated amount of indebtedness

    [ Syn: aggregate , aggregated , aggregative ]

    mass (v.)

  1. join together into a mass or collect or form a mass; Crowds were massing outside the palace'

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.