Word.ws English Dictionary

dry mass

dry mass noun: the mass of a rocket including its contents but without propellant.

Noun

dry mass (plural dry masses)

  1. The mass of a rocket including its contents but without propellant.
  2. (historical) A demonstrative celebration of most of the liturgy of the Mass, omitting the consecration of the elements.
    • Alongside the mass as a means of providing access to the consecrated elements, there is the oddity of the holding of masses without any consecration. These ‘dry masses’ are one of the more shadowy elements of medieval devotion, ill-documented and little considered.1995, Robert N. Swanson, Religion and Devotion in Europe, c.1215–c.1515, page 139

Forms of dry mass

pluraldry masses

Origin of dry mass

From dry + mass. In the liturgical sense, a calque of Ecclesiastical Latin missa sicca.

Questions about dry mass

What does dry mass mean?
Dry mass means the mass of a rocket including its contents but without propellant.
What part of speech is dry mass?
Dry mass is a noun.
What is the plural of dry mass?
The plural of dry mass is dry masses.

Words near dry mass in the dictionary

  1. dry markers
  2. dry market
  3. dry markets
  4. dry martini
  5. dry martinis
  6. dry mass
  7. dry masses
  8. dry matter
  9. dry matters
  10. dry measure
  11. dry measures

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dry 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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Cite this entry: “dry mass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dry_mass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.