What does critical mass mean?
Definitions for critical mass
crit·i·cal mass
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word critical mass.
Princeton's WordNet
critical massnoun
the minimum amount (of something) required to start or maintain a venture
"the battle for the computer market has now reached critical mass"; "there is now a critical mass of successful women to take the lead"; "they sold the business because it lacked critical mass"
critical massnoun
the minimum mass of fissionable material that can sustain a chain reaction
Wiktionary
critical massnoun
the amount of fissile material that is needed to support a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
critical massnoun
A quantity or amount required to trigger a phenomenon.
Critical Massnoun
A direct action event in which bicycle riders travel through city streets as a group.
Wikipedia
Critical mass
In nuclear engineering, a critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specifically, its nuclear fission cross-section), density, shape, enrichment, purity, temperature, and surroundings. The concept is important in nuclear weapon design.
ChatGPT
critical mass
Critical mass refers to the minimum amount or quantity required to cause a significant effect, start a process, or make something self-sustaining. In physics, it refers to the minimum amount of fissile material needed to maintain a nuclear chain reaction. Similarly, in the context of social dynamics, it could refer to the proportion of adopters of an idea or behavior necessary for mass adoption or substantial change.
Wikidata
Critical Mass
Critical Mass is a cycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. The ride was originally founded in 1992 in San Francisco. The purpose of Critical Mass is not usually formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and traveling as a group through city or town streets on bikes. Some bigger scale events as in Budapest, Hungary, have an activist group formed around it, organizing the rides and communicating the desires and problems of the cyclists to the city council. Critical Mass rides have been perceived as protest. A 2006 New Yorker magazine article described Critical Mass' activity in New York City as "monthly political-protest rides", and characterized Critical Mass as a part of a social movement; and the UK e-zine Urban75, which advertises as well as publishes photographs of the Critical Mass event in London, describes this as "the monthly protest by cyclists reclaiming the streets of London." Critical Mass participants have insisted that these events should be viewed as "celebrations" and spontaneous gatherings, and not as protests or organized demonstrations. This stance allows Critical Mass to argue a legal position that its events can occur without advance notification of local police.
The New Hacker's Dictionary
critical mass
In physics, the minimum amount of fissionable material required to sustain a chain reaction. Of a software product, describes a condition of the software such that fixing one bug introduces one plus epsilon bugs. (This malady has many causes: creeping featurism, ports to too many disparate environments, poor initial design, etc.) When software achieves critical mass, it can never be fixed; it can only be discarded and rewritten.
Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
critical mass
The minimum amount of fissionable material capable of supporting a chain reaction under precisely specified conditions.
Suggested Resources
critical mass
Song lyrics by critical mass -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by critical mass on the Lyrics.com website.
critical mass
Read the full text of the Critical Mass poem by Robert Strong on the Poetry.com website.
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of critical mass in Chaldean Numerology is: 2
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of critical mass in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1
Examples of critical mass in a Sentence
There is a critical mass of inventors in the country which must be tapped, transformed into a commodity which will foster growth.
When you have a critical mass of that generation that subscribes to those principles and sets them as their North Star to be able to live in a society like that, that gives me a little bit of hope.
I think we can get critical mass simply by doubling our numbers.
When SiSi of Egypt, head of the most important nation in the world for the Islamic world… gives an extraordinary speech saying this is a disgrace what's being done and there must be a reformation in Islam, it is just possible we've reached a critical mass of horror and things are going to change.
If you fight for your own rights, you will be crushed. But when minorities come together, we form a critical mass, i may not win, but the most important thing is we're now talking about LGBT rights.
References
Translations for critical mass
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- massa críticaCatalan, Valencian
- kritické množstvíCzech
- kritisk masseDanish
- kritische MasseGerman
- κρίσιμη μάζαGreek
- جرم بحرانیPersian
- kriittinen massaFinnish
- masse critiqueFrench
- kritikus tömegHungarian
- markmassiIcelandic
- massa criticaItalian
- 臨界質量Japanese
- kritische massaDutch
- kritisk masseNorwegian
- критическая массаRussian
- kritisk massaSwedish
- קריטיש מאַסעYiddish
- 临界质量Chinese
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"critical mass." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 16 Jan. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/critical+mass>.
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