COMMONWEALTH

noun Date: 15th century commonweal 2, a nation, state, or other political unit: as, one founded on law and united by compact or tacit agreement of the people for the common good, one in which supreme authority is vested in the people, republic , 3. capitalized the English state from the death of Charles I in 1649 to the Restoration in 1660, protectorate 1b, a state of the U.S., a federal union of constituent states, an association of self-governing autonomous states more or less loosely associated in a common allegiance (as to the British crown), a political unit having local autonomy but voluntarily united with the U.S.