Mass
WordNet
adjective
(1) Gathered or tending to gather into a mass or whole
"Aggregate expenses include expenses of all divisions combined for the entire year"
"The aggregated amount of indebtedness"
noun
(2) (Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches) the celebration of the Eucharist
(3) The property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
(4) 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"
(5) A sequence of prayers constituting the Christian Eucharistic rite
"The priest said Mass"
(6) A musical setting for a Mass
"They played a Mass composed by Beethoven"
(7) An ill-structured collection of similar things (objects or people)
(8) The common people generally
"Separate the warriors from the mass"
"Power to the people"
(9) A body of matter without definite shape
"A huge ice mass"
(10) (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"
"It must have cost plenty"
verb
(11) Join together into a mass or collect or form a mass
"Crowds were massing outside the palace"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From masse, messe, mæsse. missa, from mittere, missum, to send, dismiss: compare messe.
In the ancient churches, the public services at which the catechumens were permitted to be present were called missa catechumenorum, ending with the reading of the Gospel. Then they were dismissed with these words: "Ite, missa est", the congregation is dismissed. After that the sacrifice proper began. At its close the same words were said to those who remained. So the word gave the name of Mass to the sacrifice in the Catholic Church. Compare Christmas, Lammas, Mess a dish, Missal
Noun
- The principal liturgical service of the Church, including a scripture service and a eucharistic service, which includes the consecration and oblation (offering) of the host and wine. One of the seven sacraments.
- A similar ceremony offered by a number of Christian sects.
- A musical composition set to portions of the Mass.