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Webster 1913 Edition


Community

Com-mu′ni-ty

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Communities
(#)
.
[L.
communitas
: cf. OF.
communité
. Cf.
Commonalty
, and see
Common
.]
1.
Common possession or enjoyment; participation;
as, a
community
of goods
.
The original
community
of all things.
Locke.
An unreserved
community
of thought and feeling.
W. Irving.
2.
A body of people having common rights, privileges, or interests, or living in the same place under the same laws and regulations;
as, a
community
of monks
. Hence a number of animals living in a common home or with some apparent association of interests.
Creatures that in
communities
exist.
Wordsworth.
3.
Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body politic; the public, or people in general.
Burdens upon the poorer classes of the
community
.
Hallam.
☞ In this sense, the term should be used with the definite article; as, the interests of the community.
4.
Common character; likeness.
[R.]
The essential
community
of nature between organic growth and inorganic growth.
H. Spencer.
5.
Commonness; frequency.
[Obs.]
Eyes . . . sick and blunted with
community
.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition


Community

COMMUNITY

, n.
1.
Properly, common possession or enjoyment; as a community of goods.
It is a confirmation of the original community of all things.
2.
A society of people, having common rights and privileges, or common interests, civil, political or ecclesiastical; or living under the same laws and regulations. This word may signify a commonwealth or state, a body politic, or a particular society or order of men within a state, as a community of monks; and it is often used for the public or people in general, without very definite limits.
3.
Commonness; frequency.

Definition 2024


community

community

English

Noun

community (plural communities)

  1. A group sharing a common understanding and often the same language, manners, tradition and law. See civilization.
    • Hallam
      Burdens upon the poorer classes of the community.
    • Wordsworth
      Creatures that in communities exist.
    A community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime (Oscar Wilde)
  2. A commune, or residential or religious collective.
  3. The condition of having certain attitudes and interests in common.
    • 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19:
      It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today – with America standing out in the forefront and the UK not far behind.
  4. (ecology) A group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other.
  5. (Internet) A group of people interacting by electronic means for social, professional, educational or other purposes; a virtual community.
  6. (obsolete) Common possession or enjoyment; participation.
    a community of goods
  7. (obsolete) common character; likeness.
    • H. Spencer
      The essential community of nature between organic growth and inorganic growth.
    • John Wilde
      There can be no community between us and them, unless by allying ourselves with murder, and sanctioning and sharing in the pillage of thieves.
  8. (obsolete) commonness; frequency
    • Shakespeare
      Eyes [] sick and blunted with community.

Related terms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. "community, n." OED Online. July 2009. Oxford University Press Article.
  • community in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • community in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
  • community at OneLook Dictionary Search