massive

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has become an overused word in contexts that have little to do with mass:

Yet another massive stage project, now previewing at the Aldwych, where it officially opens on June 19—Times, 1980

It's a trend set to turn this year's festive season on its head-the upside-down Christmas tree. The craze has been a massive hit in New York—Daily Record, 2007.

In many cases alternatives such as immense, enormous, substantial, powerful, impressive, or even huge or large, should be considered. In extended and figurative uses, massive is best reserved for contexts in which an image of vast size is appropriate:

Riot police looked on impassively...as a massive crowd of mourners...gave the clenched fist Marxist salute—Times, 1977

The most important area on which to concentrate was the massive amount of water required by the production of textiles—Daily Telegraph, 1992.

But use one of the alternative words when the image is unreal or forced:

☒ Women have massive amounts of love invested in fathers, lovers and sons, and many of these women despise the systems their own men may be helping to sustain—B. Cant et al., 1988.

In 21th century youth slang massive has acquired the meaning 'very popular', and from about 1990 the word has been used informally as a noun in the sense 'a group of young people from a particular area' (as in the Bristol massive or the Scottish massive).

Previous:	massage, massacre, marvellous
Next:	masterful, masterly, materialize, materiel

adjective

1. Extremely large; having great mass: bulky, oversize, oversized. See big/small/amount.
2. Having a relatively great weight: heavy, heavyweight, hefty, ponderous, weighty. See heavy/light.
3. Of extraordinary size and power: behemoth, Brobdingnagian, Bunyanesque, colossal, cyclopean, elephantine, enormous, gargantuan, giant, gigantesque, gigantic, herculean, heroic, huge, immense, jumbo, mammoth, massy, mastodonic, mighty, monster, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, prodigious, pythonic, stupendous, titanic, tremendous, vast. Informal walloping. Slang whopping. See big/small/amount.

adj

Definition: very large
Antonyms: little, miniature, small, tiny

see Glossary of Wine Tasting Terms, page 613

mod. excellently; totally.  Max showed up for the meeting massively stoned and singing at the top of his lungs.

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IN BRIEF: In a weighty or heavy manner.

The family was massively affected by the car accident.

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noun
noun, Brit, orig Caribbean and in Afro-Caribbean usage

A group or gang of young people from a particular place, esp. followers of a particular type of (dance) music. (1989 —) .
M8 DJs from England and abroad such as Carl Cox and Bass Generator, became firm favourites amongst the Scottish massive (1996).

Previous:	masher, mashed, mash note
Next:	mat, matelot, matey

For a list of words related to massive, see:

• Large, tall, or fat
• Strong, Bold, or Tough

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See words rhyming with "massive."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Massive.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - massiv, svær, tung
n. - massiv

Nederlands (Dutch)
massief, massaal, enorm, zonder regelmatige vorm, uitstekend, indrukwekkend, zeer sterk (van gevoel)

Français (French)
adj. - énorme, retentissant, écrasant, de grande envergure, massif, grave
n. - (Mus) groupe de jeunes partageant la passion du hip hop et de la musique sauvage

Deutsch (German)
adj. - massiv, wuchtig, gewaltig
n. - Gruppe von jungen Leuten mit gemeinsamem Interesse an Hip-hop- oder Jungle-Musik

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - συμπαγής, ογκώδης, βαρύς, μαζικός

Italiano (Italian)
massiccio, su vasta scala

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - massivo

Русский (Russian)
массивный, плотный, массированный, грандиозный, важнейший

Español (Spanish)
adj. - masivo, imponente, en gran escala, macizo
n. - masivo, imponente

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - massiv, kompakt, kraftig, förhärskande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
大而重的, 宏伟的, 宽大的, 大而重的物

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 大而重的, 宏偉的, 寬大的
n. - 大而重的物

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 거대한 덩어리의, 딱딱한, 많은 수[양]의
n. - 거대한 덩어리, 육중함

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 大きくて重い, がっしりした, しっかりした, 大きな, 強力な, 堂々とした

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) كتلي, ضخم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮גדול, מוצק, גושי, חזק, מסיבי‬
n. - ‮קבוצת צעירים מאיזור מסוים המתעניינים במוסיקת היפ-הופ ובמוסיקת ג'ונגל‬

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