kəˈmyünəd.ē, -ətē, -i noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English comunete, from Middle French communité, comuneté, from Latin communitat-, communitas, from communis common + -itat-, -itas -ity
1. : a body of individuals organized into a unit or manifesting usually with awareness some unifying trait:
a. : state , commonwealth
b. : the people living in a particular place or region and usually linked by common interests ; broadly : the region itself : any population cluster
small, compact, homogeneous communities such as the Greek city-state or Elizabethan England — C.D.Lewis
c. : a monastic body or other unified religious group
d. : an interacting population of different kinds of individuals (as species) constituting a society or association or simply an aggregation of mutually related individuals in a given location
a climax community
e. : a group of people marked by a common characteristic but living within a larger society that does not share that characteristic
the Chinese community in New York
the artists' community downtown
the Jewish community in London
especially : such a group politically organized and recognized especially as a separate voting group for election purposes
Sikh and Muslim communities in India
f. : a group sharing a particular economic or social belief and living communally
g. : any group sharing interests or pursuits
a community of scholars
: a group linked by a common policy
a tariff community of small nations
h. : a body of persons or nations united by historical consciousness or by common social, economic, and political interests
the entire Christian community
the European coal and steel community
2. : society at large : public : people in general — used with the definite article
the interests of the community
3.
a. : common or joint ownership, tenure, experience, or pertinence : commonness , sharing , participation
asserts that community of goods would be the ideal institution — G.L.Dickinson
out of the atmosphere of controversy to the community of our love again — Mary Austin
the essential community of interests shared by all branches of learning — G.W.Cottrell
b. : common character : fact of showing a trait or various traits in common : agreement , concord , likeness
although there are varieties, the community of style is still more evident — O. Elfrida Saunders
c. : shared activity : social intercourse : fellowship , communion ; especially : social activity marked by a feeling of unity but also individual participation completely willing and not forced or coerced and without loss of individuality
in order that there may be a community , there must be conscious and purposive sharing — Ernest Barker
d. obsolete : frequent occurrence
e. : a social or societal state
emerging from feral isolation into community
4. : a civil-law partnership or society of property between husband and wife arising by virtue of the fact of marriage or by contract