Word Study
masses (root: mass)
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun masses has 1 sense
- masses(n = noun.group) hoi polloi, mass, multitude, people, the great unwashed - the common people generally; "separate the warriors from the mass"; "power to the people" is a kind of group, grouping
has particulars: laity, temporalty, audience, followers, following
THESAURUS
masses
cog, commonality, commonalty, creature, flunky, follower, hoi polloi, ignobile vulgus, inferior, junior, lightweight, lower class, lower orders, many-headed multitude, mobile vulgus, pawn, second fiddle, secondary, subaltern, subordinate, the common herd, the crowd, the great unnumbered, the great unwashed, the herd, the hoi polloi, the horde, the majority, the many, the masses, the mob, the multitude, third stringer, underling, understrapper, yes-man
For further exploring for "masses" in Webster Dictionary Online