different between length vs mass

English

Etymology

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþu (“longness; length”), from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþ?, equivalent to long +? -th. Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: l?ng(k)th, l?n(t)th, IPA^(key): /l??(k)?/, /l?n(t)?/
• Rhymes: -??k?, -???, -?nt?, -?n?

Noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

1. The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.
2. Duration.
   • 1941, Robert Frost, The Gift Outright

     Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

3. (horse racing) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
4. (mathematics) Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
5. (cricket) The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
6. (figuratively) Total extent.

7. Part of something that is long; a physical piece of something.

8. (theater) A unit of script length, comprising 42 lines.
   • 1890, Henry Austin, Address of Henry Austin Before the Second Nationalist Club (page 38)

     […] open your book of the play, which you have previously carefully perused, and at the same time marked with the proper calls, as thus: a length (or 42 lines) before an entrance, with a pen make a figure on the margin, […]

   • 1960, J. L. Hodgkinson, ?Rex Pogson, The Early Manchester Theatre (page 45)

     The boy was engaged to write out parts at a penny a length (42 lines) for Chetwood, who then charged the manager, […]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

length (third-person singular simple present lengths, present participle lengthing, simple past and past participle lengthed)

1. (obsolete) To lengthen.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim, XIV. 30:

     Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow: / Short night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.

   • 1552, Richard Huloet, "Ladies of Destinie" in Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum

     Was never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde.

   • a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in Hell

     [He] knows full well life doth but length his pain.

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.