community Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a group of people living in a particular local area
    • the team is drawn from all parts of the community
  2. noun common ownership
    • they shared a community of possessions
  3. noun a group of nations having common interests
    • they hoped to join the NATO community
  4. noun agreement as to goals
    community of interests.
    • the preachers and the bootleggers found they had a community of interests
  5. noun a district where people live; occupied primarily by private residences
    residential area; residential district.
  6. noun (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other
    biotic community.

WordNet

Com*mu"ni*ty noun
Etymology
L. communitas: cf. OF. communité. Cf. Commonalty, and see Common.
Wordforms
plural Communities
Definitions
  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. Irwing.
  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. Shak.

Webster 1913