masses

See also massés

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɑːsɪz

Noun

masses

1. Plural form of mass
2. (plural only, generically) People, especially a large number of people
   • 2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, The Onion AV Club:

     Since first tossing its cartoonish, good-time cock-rock to the masses in the early ’00s, The Darkness has always fallen back on this defense: The band is a joke, but hey, it’s a good joke. With Hot Cakes—the group’s third album, and first since reforming last year—the laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating.

3. (plural only) The total population.

   The masses will be voting this Tuesday.

   • 1975, Monty Python, 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

     Dennis: Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

4. (plural only) The lower classes or all but the elite.

   […] the ignorant masses […]

Synonyms

• (lower classes): unwashed

Derived terms

• unwashed masses

Translations

people, especially a large number

• Arabic: الجماهير (ar) (al-jamaahiir) pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 群眾 (cmn), 群众 (cmn) (qúnzhòng)

• Finnish: massat (fi) pl, kansa (fi)
• French: masses (fr) f pl

• German: Massen (de) f pl
• Japanese: 大衆 (ja) (たいしゅう, taishū), 民衆 (ja) (みんしゅう, minshū)
• Korean: 군중 (ko) (群衆), 대중 (ko) (大衆), 민중 (ko) (民衆)
• Manx: pobble (gv) m
• Russian: массы (ru) (mássy) f pl

Verb

masses

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of mass.

See also

• unwashed masses

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French

Noun

masses f

1. (plural only) The commoners, the people.
2. Plural form of masse

Verb

masses

1. second-person singular present indicative of masser
2. second-person singular present subjunctive of masser