A massif is a section of a planet's crust bounded by faults or flexures that tends to move and deform as a single structural block, in contrast to a mountain range whose parts may fold and fault more independently of one another. It sits below the scale of a tectonic plate but above the scale of an individual mountain. The term is applied to compact highland blocks such as the Mont Blanc massif, spanning Italy, France and Switzerland, and the Massif Central of France.
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Massif (Wikipedia)
Caused By: Faulting, Article text
As a purely scientific term in geology, however, a "massif" is separately and more specifically defined as a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures.
In Discipline: Geomorphology, Lead paragraph
A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g
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