Word Confusion: Mass vs Massé vs En Masse

Verb ¹, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: masses, Masses [church service] Gerund: massing

Third person present verb: masses
Past tense or past participle: massed
Present participle: massing

Plural: massé

Noun:
A coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape ¹

• Large number of people or objects crowded together
• [Informal; masses] A large quantity or amount of something
• Any of the main portions in a painting or drawing that each have some unity in color, lighting, or some other quality

[the mass of] The majority of

• [the masses] The ordinary people

[Physics] The quantity of matter that a body contains, as measured by its acceleration under a given force or by the force exerted on it by a gravitational field

• [In general use] Weight

[Religion; always capitalize] The Christian Eucharist or Holy Communion, especially in the Roman Catholic Church ²

• A celebration of this
• A musical setting of parts of the liturgy used in the Mass

Verb, intransitive:
To come together in or form a mass or masses ¹

Verb, transitive:
Assemble or cause to assemble into a mass or as one body ¹

• To gather into or dispose in a mass or masses

All together

When the ship docked, there was a mass exodus of refugees.

The mass result is impressive.

Let’s get this into mass production.

Noun:
She had a mass of the curliest chestnut hair.

From here, the trees were a dark mass.

There was a mass of cyclists at the bend in the road.

It was a mass of conflicting evidence through which we had to wade.

We get masses of homework.

The masterly distribution of masses ensured no rioting.

The great mass of the population had little interest in the project.

We went to Mass.

It was the Latin Mass.

There was a Mass, and the whole family was supposed to go.

Verb, intransitive:
Clouds massed heavily on the horizon.

The crowds are massing in the East Village.

The crowd massed outside the embassy.

Verb, transitive:
Both countries began massing troops in the region.

The houses are massed in blocks.

The generals massed their troops.

“I practice the massé at home, because an understanding of the dynamics involved helps me in other situations, particularly where using the rail is a factor” (Meador).

You’re likely to damage the table when executing a massé shot.

The audience rose en masse in admiration.

The villagers turned out en masse to burn out the witch.

1. Late Middle English from the Old French masse, which is from the Latin massa, from Greek maza meaning barley cake. This may be related to massein, meaning knead.
2. From Old English mæsse, from ecclesiastical Latin missa, which is from the Latin miss- meaning dismissed, from mittere. It is perhaps from the last words of the service: Ite, missa est (Go, it is the dismissal).