masses
English
Pronunciation
Noun
masses
Noun
- (generically) People, especially a large number of people; the general population.
- 2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club[1]:
- 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.
- 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.
- The lower classes or all but the elite.
- […] the ignorant masses […]
Synonyms
- (lower classes): unwashed
Derived terms
Translations
people, especially a large number
|
Verb
masses
- third-person singular simple present indicative of mass
See also
Further reading
- "masses" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 192.
Anagrams
Catalan
Adjective
masses
Noun
masses
French
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Non-lemma form
Noun
masses f
Noun
masses f pl (plural only)
Etymology 2
Non-lemma form
Verb
masses
Further reading
- “masses”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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