masses

Etymology

noun

1. plural of mass
2. plural of masse

noun

1. (generically) People, especially a large number of people; the general population.
   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. August 21, 2012, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club
2. The total population.
   The masses will be voting this Tuesday.
   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. 1975, Monty Python, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. The lower classes or all but the elite.
   […] the ignorant masses […]

verb

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of mass