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Definition of Mass noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Mass

noun
 
/mæs/
 
/mæs/
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  1. (sometimes mass)
     [uncountable, countable] (especially in the Roman Catholic Church) a ceremony held in memory of the last meal that Christ had with his disciples
    • to go to Mass
    • a priest celebrating/saying Mass
    see also black mass, communion, EucharistTopics Religion and festivalsc2
  2. [countable] a piece of music that is written for the prayers, etc. of this ceremony
    • Bach’s Mass in B minor
    3. Word OriginOld English mæsse, from ecclesiastical Latin missa, from Latin miss- ‘dismissed’, from mittere, perhaps from the last words of the service, Ite, missa est ‘Go, it is the dismissal’.
See Mass in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
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