mass
verb/mæs/
/mæs/
[intransitive, transitive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they mass | /mæs/ /mæs/ |
| he / she / it masses | /ˈmæsɪz/ /ˈmæsɪz/ |
| past simple massed | /mæst/ /mæst/ |
| past participle massed | /mæst/ /mæst/ |
| -ing form massing | /ˈmæsɪŋ/ /ˈmæsɪŋ/ |
- to come together in large numbers; to gather people or things together in large numbers
- (+ adv./prep.) Demonstrators had massed outside the embassy.
- Dark clouds massed on the horizon.
- Their troops were massing for war.
- mass somebody/something The general massed his troops for a final attack.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French masse, from Latin massa, from Greek maza ‘barley cake’; perhaps related to massein ‘knead’.Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
mass