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critical masses

critical masses is the plural of critical mass.

Meaning of critical mass

Noun

critical mass (countable and uncountable, plural critical masses)

  1. (nuclear physics) The minimum amount of fissile material needed to support a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
    • […] Rhodes calculated the uranium bomb would eventually need “about 42 kilograms – 92.6 pounds,” which Rhodes then stated was approximately 2.8 critical masses. In other words, critical mass can be calculated to be about 15 kilograms.2016, Carter Hydrick, Critical Mass […] , 3rd edition, TrineDay, →ISBN
  2. (broadly, figuratively) The minimum amount of something or the minimum number of people needed to trigger a phenomenon.
    • […] depending on the rare circumstance of there being a critical mass of persons whose combination of interests and resources is high enough to overcome the feasibility problem.1993, Gerald Marwell, Pamela Oliver, The Critical Mass in Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 87

See all 3 meanings of critical mass

Questions about critical masses

What is critical masses the plural of?
Critical masses is the plural of critical mass.

Words near critical masses in the dictionary

  1. critical illness
  2. critical incident stress management
  3. critical load
  4. critical loads
  5. critical mass
  6. critical masses
  7. critical micelle concentration
  8. critical micelle concentrations
  9. critical opalescence
  10. critical path
  11. critical paths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: critical masses (page history and authors); critical mass (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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