Atomic mass
Any mass defect due to nuclear binding energy is experimentally a small fraction (less than 1%) of the mass of equal number of free nucleons. When compared to the average mass per nucleon in carbon-12, which is moderately strongly-bound compared with other atoms, the mass defect of binding for most atoms is an even smaller fraction of a dalton (unified atomic mass unit, based on carbon-12). Since free protons and neutrons differ from each other in mass by a small fraction of a dalton (about 0.0014 u), rounding the relative isotopic mass, or the atomic mass of any given nuclide given in daltons to the nearest whole number always gives the nucleon count, or mass number. Additionally, the neutron count (neutron number) may then be derived by subtracting the number of protons (atomic number) from the mass number (nucleon count).
Mass (mass spectrometry)
The nominal mass for an element is the mass number of its most abundant naturally occurring stable isotope, and for an ion or molecule, the nominal mass is the sum of the nominal masses of the constituent atoms. Isotope abundances are tabulated by IUPAC: for example carbon has two stable isotopes C at 98.9% natural abundance and C at 1.1% natural abundance, thus the nominal mass of carbon is 12. The nominal mass is not always the lowest mass number, for example iron has isotopes Fe, Fe, Fe, and Fe with abundances 6%, 92%, 10%, and 2%, respectively, and a nominal mass of 56. For a molecule, the nominal mass is obtained by summing the nominal masses of the constituent elements, for example water has two hydrogen atoms with nominal mass 1 and one oxygen atom with nominal mass 16, therefore the nominal mass of HO is 18.