n.
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English masse, from Anglo-French, from Latin massa, from Greek maza; akin to Greek massein to knead ― more at MINGLE
Date: 15th century
1 a : a quantity or aggregate of matter usually of considerable size b (1) : EXPANSE , BULK (2) : massive quality or effect <impressed me with such mass and such vividness ― F. M. Ford> (3) : the principal part or main body <the great mass of the continent is buried under an ice cap ― Walter Sullivan> (4) : AGGREGATE , WHOLE <men in the mass > c : the property of a body that is a measure of its inertia and that is commonly taken as a measure of the amount of material it contains and causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
2 : a large quantity, amount, or number <a great mass of material>
3 a : a large body of persons in a compact group : a body of persons regarded as an aggregate b : the great body of the people as contrasted with the elite ― often used in plural <the underprivileged and disadvantaged mass es ― C. A. Buss>
synonyms see BULK