massif

Borrowed from French massif, from Middle French massif, ultimately from Latin massa, from Ancient Greek μᾶζα (mâza, “barley-cake, lump (of dough)”).

• IPA^(key): /mæˈsiːf/, /ˈmæsɪf/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -iːf

massif (plural massifs)

1. A principal mountain mass.
2. A block of the earth's crust bounded by faults or flexures and displaced as a unit without internal change; normally consists of gneisses and schists
   • 2011, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Pulphead:

     The southern borders of these states are keyed to the same horizontal projection, one surveyed by the frontier planter William Byrd in 1728, while the rivers forming their northern extents fall back just opposite each other from the flanks of the Appalachian massif.

   • 1921, Max Roesler, The Iron-ore Resources of Europe‎, page 68:

     Some deposits of iron ore are scattered along the edges of the massif in south - central France.

   • 1891, Carl Diener, “Reviews and Notices”, in The Alpine Journal‎, volume 15, page 564:

     The southern portion of the zone from the Maritime Alps to the Pelvoux massif is complicated by the movements which have accompanied the formation of the mountains of Provence.

Inherited from Old French massiz (with the suffix replaced by -if), from Vulgar Latin *massīcius, from Latin massa.

• IPA^(key): /ma.sif/

• audio

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massif m (plural massifs)

1. massif

• Massif central

massif (feminine massive, masculine plural massifs, feminine plural massives)

1. massive

• arme de destruction massive
• cours en ligne ouvert et massif
• nom massif

• “massif”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• massiff, massiffe, massyf

From Middle French massif; equivalent to mass +‎ -if.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmasif/

massif

1. (Late Middle English) weighty, massy, weighing very much.
2. (Late Middle English, rare) massive, huge, enormous.
3. (Late Middle English, rare) not sharp, unsharpened, coarse.

• massy

• English: massive
• Scots: massive (obsolete)

• “massī̆f, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-27.