View synonyms for

the masses

The body of common people, or people of low socioeconomic status, as in TV sitcoms are designed to appeal to the masses. This idiom is nearly always used in a snobbish context that puts down the taste, intelligence, or some other quality of the majority of people. W.S. Gilbert satirized this view in the peers' march in Iolanthe (1882), in which the lower-middle class and the masses are ordered to bow down before the peers. Prime Minister William Gladstone took a different view (Speech, 1886): “All the world over, I will back the masses against the [upper] classes.” [First half of 1800s]

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Example Sentences

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Balancing compulsive watchability with a touch of class, the company is still trying to break the mold while simultaneously catering to the masses.

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That shift — from a laid-back, members-first experience to a tightly managed operation catering to the masses — is the reason his relationship with private clubs has changed.

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It was once unthinkable that Lyle and Erik Menendez, the men who murdered their wealthy parents by shooting them 16 times, would get the sympathy and forgiveness of the masses.

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The possibility of reaching the masses, irresistible.

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The latest hue and cry from the masses about Donald Trump comes from the announcement that the country of Qatar has gifted him a $400 million Boeing 747.

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“The Marseillaise”The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation

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