different between circle vs mass

English

Etymology

From Middle English circle, cercle, from Old French cercle and Latin circulus, diminutive of Latin circus (“circle, circus”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (kírkos, “circle, ring”), related to Old English hring (“ring”). Compare also Old English ?ircul (“circle, zodiac”), which came from the same Latin source.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sûr?-k?l, IPA^(key): /?s??k?l/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [?s??.k??]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [?s?.k??]
• Rhymes: -??(?)k?l
• Homophone: cercal
• Hyphenation: cir?cle

Noun

circle (plural circles)

1. (geometry) A two-dimensional geometric figure, a line, consisting of the set of all those points in a plane that are equally distant from a given point (center).

   Synonyms: (not in mathematical use) coil, (not in mathematical use) ring, (not in mathematical use) loop

2. A two-dimensional geometric figure, a disk, consisting of the set of all those points of a plane at a distance less than or equal to a fixed distance (radius) from a given point.

   Synonyms: disc, (in mathematical and general use) disk, (not in mathematical use; UK & Commonwealth only) round

3. Any shape, curve or arrangement of objects that approximates to or resembles the geometric figures.

   Children, please join hands and form a circle.

   1. Any thin three-dimensional equivalent of the geometric figures.

   2. A curve that more or less forms part or all of a circle.

4. A specific group of persons; especially one who shares a common interest.

   Synonyms: bunch, gang, group

   • At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, […], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.

5. The orbit of an astronomical body.
6. (cricket) A line comprising two semicircles of 30 yards radius centred on the wickets joined by straight lines parallel to the pitch used to enforce field restrictions in a one-day match.
7. (Wicca) A ritual circle that is cast three times deosil and closes three times widdershins either in the air with a wand or literally with stones or other items used for worship.
8. (South Africa) A traffic circle or roundabout.
9. (obsolete) Compass; circuit; enclosure.
10. (astronomy) An instrument of observation, whose graduated limb consists of an entire circle. When fixed to a wall in an observatory, it is called a mural circle; when mounted with a telescope on an axis and in Y's, in the plane of the meridian, a meridian or transit circle; when involving the principle of reflection, like the sextant, a reflecting circle; and when that of repeating an angle several times continuously along the graduated limb, a repeating circle.
11. A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.

    • Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain.

12. (logic) A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.
    • 1661, Joseph Glanvill, The Vanity of Dogmatizing

      That heavy bodies descend by gravity; and, again, that gravity is a quality whereby a heavy body descends, is an impertinent circle and teaches nothing.

13. Indirect form of words; circumlocution.
    • 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist

      Has he given the lie, / In circle, or oblique, or semicircle.

14. A territorial division or district.

15. (in the plural) A bagginess of the skin below the eyes from lack of sleep.

Derived terms

Related terms

• circular
• circulate
• circus

Descendants

• Pitcairn-Norfolk: sirkil

Translations

Verb

circle (third-person singular simple present circles, present participle circling, simple past and past participle circled)

1. (transitive) To travel around along a curved path.

   The wolves circled the herd of deer.
2. (transitive) To surround.

   A high fence circles the enclosure.

   • 1699, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions

     Their heads are circled with a short turban.

   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Dungeon

     So he lies, circled with evil.

3. (transitive) To place or mark a circle around.

   Circle the jobs that you are interested in applying for.

4. (intransitive) To travel in circles.

   Vultures circled overhead.

Derived terms

• circle the drain

Translations

Anagrams

• cleric

English

Etymology 1

In late Middle English (circa 1400) as masse in the sense of "lump, quantity of matter", from Anglo-Norman masse, in Old French attested from the 11th century, via late Latin massa (“lump, dough”), from Ancient Greek ???? (mâza, “barley-cake, lump (of dough)”). The Greek noun is derived from the verb ????? (máss?, “to knead”), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *ma?- (“to oil, knead”). Doublet of masa.The sense of "a large number or quantity" arises circa 1580. The scientific sense is from 1687 (as Latin massa) in the works of Isaac Newton, with the first English use (as mass) occurring in 1704.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mæs/
• Rhymes: -æs

Noun

mass (countable and uncountable, plural masses)

1. (physical) Matter, material.
   1. A quantity of matter cohering together so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size
   2. (obsolete) Precious metal, especially gold or silver.
   3. (physics) The quantity of matter which a body contains, irrespective of its bulk or volume. It is one of four fundamental properties of matter. It is measured in kilograms in the SI system of measurement.
   4. (pharmacology) A medicinal substance made into a cohesive, homogeneous lump, of consistency suitable for making pills; as, blue mass.
   5. (medicine) A palpable or visible abnormal globular structure; a tumor.
   6. (bodybuilding) Excess body weight, especially in the form of muscle hypertrophy.
   7. (proscribed) Synonym of weight
2. A large quantity; a sum.
   1. Bulk; magnitude; body; size.
   2. The principal part; the main body.
   3. A large body of individuals, especially persons.

   4. (in the plural) The lower classes of persons.

Derived terms

Coordinate terms

(matter):

• weight

Translations

See also

• Customary units: slug, pound, ounce, long ton (1.12 short tons), short ton (commonly used)
• Metric units: gram (g), kilogram (kg), metric ton

Verb

mass (third-person singular simple present masses, present participle massing, simple past and past participle massed)

1. (transitive) To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to bring together into masses; to assemble.
2. (intransitive) To have a certain mass.

Synonyms

• (to form into a mass): See also Thesaurus:assemble
• (to collect into a mass): See also Thesaurus:coalesce or Thesaurus:round up
• (to have a certain mass): weigh

Translations

Adjective

mass (not generally comparable, comparative masser, superlative massest)

1. Involving a mass of things; concerning a large quantity or number.
2. Involving a mass of people; of, for, or by the masses.

Translations

Derived terms

• mass extinction

Etymology 2

From Middle English messe, masse, from Old English mæsse (“the mass, church festival”) and Old French messe, from Vulgar Latin *messa (“Eucharist, dismissal”), from Late Latin missa, noun use of feminine past participle of classical Latin mittere (“to send”), from ite, missa est (“go, (the assembly) is dismissed”), last words of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Compare Dutch mis (“mass”), German Messe (“mass”), Danish messe (“mass”), Swedish mässa (“mass; expo”), Icelandic messa (“mass”). More at mission.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??s
• (US) IPA^(key): /mæs/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /mæs/, /m??s/
• Rhymes: -æs

Noun

mass (plural masses)

1. (Christianity) The Eucharist, now especially in Roman Catholicism.
2. (Christianity) Celebration of the Eucharist.
3. (Christianity, usually as the Mass) The sacrament of the Eucharist.
4. A musical setting of parts of the mass.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

mass (third-person singular simple present masses, present participle massing, simple past and past participle massed)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To celebrate mass.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     massing priests

Translations

Further reading

• mass in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• mass in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• ASMS, ASMs, MSAs, SAMs, SMAs, SMSA, Sams, sams

Võro

Etymology 1

From Proto-Finnic *maksa, from Proto-Uralic *mëksa.

Noun

mass (genitive massa, partitive massa)

1. liver

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)Related to Estonian maks.

Noun

mass (genitive massu, partitive massu)

1. tax, payment

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.