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Common Definition

common

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Contents

English

Etymology

From Middle English comun, from Anglo-Norman comun, from Old French comun (rare in Gallo-Romance. Reinforced as a Carolingian calque of Frankish gemeini, gamaini "common" in Old French) from Latin commūnis (“common, public, general”), from Proto-Indo-European *ko-moin-i (“held in common”). Displaced native Middle English ȝemǣne, imene (“common, general, universal”) (from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English mǣne, mene (“mean, common”) (also from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English samen, somen (“in common, together”) (from Old English samen (“together”)).

Pronunciation

Adjective

common (comparative commoner or more common, superlative commonest or most common)

  1. Mutual; shared by more than one.
    The two competitors have the common aim of winning the championship.
    Winning the championship is an aim common to the two competitors.
  2. Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.
    It is common to find sharks off this coast.
  3. Found in large numbers or in a large quantity.
    Sharks are common in these waters.
  4. Simple, ordinary or vulgar.
  5. (grammar) In some languages, particularly Germanic languages, of the gender originating from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine categories of nouns.
  6. Of or pertaining to uncapitalized nouns in English, i.e., common nouns vs. proper nouns
  7. vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal, i.e., common name vs. scientific name

Synonyms

Antonyms

See also

Noun

common (plural commons)

  1. Mutual good, shared by more than one.
  2. A tract of land in common ownership; common land.

Translations

mutual good
  • Finnish: yhteisomaisuus (fi)
tract of land
  • Finnish: yhteismaa (fi)

Verb

common (third-person singular simple present commons, present participle commoning, simple past and past participle commoned)

  1. (obsolete) To communicate (something).
    • 1526, William Tyndale, trans, Bible, Luke XXII:
      Then entred Satan into Judas, whose syr name was iscariot (which was of the nombre off the twelve) and he went his waye, and commened with the hye prestes and officers, how he wolde betraye hym vnto them.
  2. (obsolete) To converse, talk.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ix:
      So long as Guyon with her commoned, / Vnto the ground she cast her modest eye [...].
  3. (obsolete) To have sex.

Derived terms

Derived terms

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