Service religiously said to mean a lot (4)
I believe the answer is:
mass
'lot' is the definition.
(I know that lot is a class)
'service religiously said to mean a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'mss' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mass that I've seen before include "Lots of people" , "Widespread" , "Lump of material" , "congregation for > service" , "Religious celebration" .)