audience vs masses

audience and masses both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
audience	Yes	No	No	No
masses	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, masses is a hypernym of audience; that is, masses is a word with a broader meaning than audience:

audience: the part of the general public interested in a source of information, entertainment, or a product/service
masses: the common people generally

Other hypernyms of audience include hoi polloi, mass, multitude, people, the great unwashed.

audience (noun)	masses (noun)
a conference (usually with someone important)	the common people generally
a gathering of spectators or listeners at a (usually public) performance
the part of the general public interested in a source of information, entertainment, or a product/service
an opportunity to state your case and be heard