In lateMiddle English (circa 1400) asmasse in the sense of "lump, quantity of matter", fromAnglo-Normanmasse, inOld French attested from the 11th century, via lateLatinmassa(“lump, dough”), fromAncient Greekμᾶζα(mâza,“barley-cake, lump (of dough)”). The Greek noun may be derived from the verbμάσσω(mássō,“to knead”), ultimately from aProto-Indo-European*maǵ-(“to oil, knead”), although this is uncertain.[1]Doublet ofmasa.The sense of "a large number or quantity" arises circa 1580. The scientific sense is from 1687 (as Latinmassa) in the works ofIsaac Newton, with the first English use (asmass) occurring in 1704.
And if it were not for theſe Principles the Bodies of the Earth, Planets, Comets, Sun, and all things in them would grow cold and freeze, and become inactiveMaſſes ;[…].
1821 [1582],George Buchanan,The History of Scotland, from the Earliest Accounts of that Nation, to the Reign of King James VI, volume 1 (in English), translation ofRerum Scoticarum Historia by an unnamed translator, page133:
[…] and because a deepmass of continual sea is slower stirred to rage.
1829, SirWalter Raleigh,The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt, volume VIII:
[…]he hath discovered to me the way to five or six of the richest mines which the Spaniard hath, and whence all themass of gold that comes into Spain in effect is drawn.
1869,Alexander George Richey,Lectures on the History of Ireland: Down to A. D. 1534, page204:
For though he had spent a hugemass of treasure in transporting his army,[…].
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Involving a mass of things; concerning a large quantity or number.
There is evidence ofmass extinctions in the distant past.
1988, V. V. Zagladin, Vitaly Baskakov,International Working Class and Communist Movement: Historical Record, 1830s to Mid-1940s[1], page236:
The national liberation movement had not yet developed to a sufficientlymass scale.
1989, Creighton Peden, Larry E. Axel (editors),God, Values, and Empiricism: Issues in Philosophical Theology[2], page 2:
With perhaps unprecedented magnitude and clarity, Auschwitz brings theologians and philosophers face to face with the facts of suffering on an incrediblymass scale, with issues poignantly raised concerning the absence of divine intervention or the inadequacies of divine power or benevolence;[…].
2010, John Horne,A Companion to World War I[3], page159:
The air arms did more than provide the warring nations with individual heroes, for their individual exploits occurred within the context of an increasinglymass aerial effort in a war of the masses.
Involving a mass of people; of, for, or by the masses.
Mass unemployment resulted from the financial collapse.
1958,Child Welfare, volume37, page 2:
Every agency is sold on use ofmass media today — or at least, it thinks it is — and what can be "masser" than television?
1970, James Wilson White,The Sōkagakkai and Mass Society[4], page 3:
While agreeing with Bell on the unlikelihood that any fullymass — in the sense of atomized and alienated — society has ever existed,5 I believe that at any point in time, in any social system, some elements may be characterized as "masses."
1974, Edward Abraham Cohn,The Political Economy of Environmental Enhancement, page91:
Undoubtedly this is the case; at least it is "masser" than in Pinchot's time.
1999 December, Sara Miles, “Rebel with a Cause”, inOut[5], page132:
But it also highlights the changes that have taken place in gay and AIDS activism, and the way that a formerlymass movement has been recast.
2000 November 21, Howie Klein, “Queer as role models”, inThe Advocate, number825, page 9:
The director didn't make the images up; they're there, but in putting that one slice of gay life into themassest ofmass media — the amoral promiscuity, the drug and alcohol abuse, the stereotyped flamboyance and campiness, the bitchy queeniness and flimsy values — something very dangerous happens[…]
2001, Brian Moeran,Asian Media Productions, page13:
[…] if only because it promises the ‘massest’ ofmass markets.
2004, John R. Hall,Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History[6], page79:
Finally, in the past century, secular culture itself has undergone a transition from predominantly folk styles to an overwhelminglymass culture,[…].
2007, Thomas Peele,Queer popular culture: literature, media, film, and television, page11:
As a right, we come to expect it, and that happens through themass media, themassest of which, by far, is television.
2025 July 13, Aaron Blake, “Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring”, inCNN[7]:
The writing has been on the wall that Americans’ support formass deportation was subject to all kinds of caveats and provisos.
*modifying a noun whose vocative is different from its nominative **modifying a noun whose vocative is identical to its nominative † not when substantivized
