mass
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A large amount of something, or a solid body
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
masIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmæs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A large quantity; a sum.
A body of matter without definite shape
A quantity of matter cohering so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size.
often followed by `of'
A large number or amount or extent
physical
Matter, material.
physics
A measure of the inertia of a mass of matter, one of four fundamental properties of matter. SI unit of mass: kilogram.
adjective
Involving a mass of things; concerning a large quantity or number.
Involving a mass of people; of, for, or by the masses.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A body of matter without definite shape
Used this way, mass is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use mass
- “Separate the warriors from the mass.”noun
- “Crowds were massing outside the palace.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The common people generally.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
To a massive degree or in a massive manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Produce on a large scale.
The production of large quantities of a standardized article (often using assembly line techniques).
An urban public transit system using underground or elevated trains.
A mass spectrometer that produces a graphical representation of the mass spectrum.
Spectroscope for obtaining a mass spectrum by deflecting ions into a thin slit and measuring the ion current with an electrometer.
Relating to or involving a mass spectrometer.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.