biomass

/ˌbaɪoʊˈmæs/

/ˈbaɪəʊmæs/

Biomass is plant or animal waste that's used as fuel.

Biomass breaks down to bio, meaning "living," and mass, meaning "weight." You can use biomass as a technical term for the total mass of living stuff in a particular area, like the biomass of Kansas, or the biomass of your kid brother's room (yuck). We frequently use biomass to talk about natural material that can be used as fuel, like cow dung, which burns as well as coal.

Definitions of biomass

1. noun

   the total mass of living matter in a given unit area
   type of:

   mass

   the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
2. noun

   plant materials and animal waste used as fuel
   type of:

   fuel

   a substance that can be consumed to produce energy