common

[ kom-uhn ]

adjective

, com·mon·er, com·mon·est.

1. belonging equally to, or shared alike by, two or more or all in question:

   common property;

   common interests.

   Antonyms: individual

2. pertaining or belonging equally to an entire community, nation, or culture; public:

   a common language or history;

   a common water-supply system.

3. joint; united:

   a common defense.

4. widespread; general; universal:

   common knowledge.

   Synonyms: accepted, popular, prevalent

5. of frequent occurrence; usual; familiar:

   a common event;

   a common mistake.

   Synonyms: everyday, habitual, customary

   Antonyms: unusual

6. hackneyed; trite.
7. of mediocre or inferior quality; mean; low:

   a rough-textured suit of the most common fabric.

8. coarse; vulgar:

   common manners.

9. lacking rank, station, distinction, etc.; unexceptional; ordinary: common people; a common thief.

   a common soldier;

   common people;

   the common man;

   a common thief.

10. Dialect. friendly; sociable; unaffected.
11. Anatomy. forming or formed by two or more parts or branches:

    the common carotid arteries.

12. Prosody. (of a syllable) able to be considered as either long or short.
13. Grammar.
    1. not belonging to an inflectional paradigm; fulfilling different functions that in some languages require different inflected forms:

       English nouns are in the common case whether used as subject or object.

    2. constituting one of two genders of a language, especially a gender comprising nouns that were formerly masculine or feminine:

       Swedish nouns are either common or neuter.

    3. noting a word that may refer to either a male or a female:

       French élève has common gender. English lacks a common gender pronoun in the third person singular.

    4. (of a noun) belonging to the common gender.
14. Mathematics. bearing a similar relation to two or more entities.
15. of, relating to, or being common stock:

    common shares.

noun

1. Often commons. Chiefly New England. a tract of land owned or used jointly by the residents of a community, usually a central square or park in a city or town.
2. Law. the right or liberty, in common with other persons, to take profit from the land or waters of another, as by pasturing animals on another's land commonofpasturage or fishing in another's waters commonofpiscary.
3. commons, (used with a singular or plural verb)
   1. the commonalty; the nonruling class.
   2. the body of people not of noble birth or not ennobled, as represented in England by the House of Commons.
   3. Commons, the representatives of this body.
   4. Commons, the House of Commons.
4. commons,
   1. (used with a singular verb) a large dining room, especially at a university or college.
   2. (usually used with a plural verb) British. food provided in such a dining room.
   3. (usually used with a plural verb) food or provisions for any group.
5. Sometimes Commons. Ecclesiastical.
   1. an office or form of service used on a festival of a particular kind.
   2. the ordinary of the Mass, especially those parts sung by the choir.
   3. the part of the missal and breviary containing Masses and offices of those saints assigned to them.
6. Obsolete.
   1. the community or public.
   2. the common people.

common

/ ˈkɒmən /

adjective

1. belonging to or shared by two or more people

   common property

2. belonging to or shared by members of one or more nations or communities; public

   a common culture

3. of ordinary standard; average

   common decency

4. prevailing; widespread

   common opinion

5. widely known or frequently encountered; ordinary

   a common brand of soap

6. widely known and notorious

   a common nuisance

7. derogatory.
   considered by the speaker to be low-class, vulgar, or coarse

   a common accent

8. prenominal having no special distinction, rank, or status

   the common man

9. maths
   1. having a specified relationship with a group of numbers or quantities

      common denominator

   2. (of a tangent) tangential to two or more circles
10. prosody (of a syllable) able to be long or short, or (in nonquantitative verse) stressed or unstressed
11. grammar (in certain languages) denoting or belonging to a gender of nouns, esp one that includes both masculine and feminine referents

    Latin sacerdos is common

12. anatomy
    1. having branches

       the common carotid artery

    2. serving more than one function

       the common bile duct

13. Christianity of or relating to the common of the Mass or divine office
14. common or garden informal.
    ordinary; unexceptional

noun

1. sometimes plural a tract of open public land, esp one now used as a recreation area
2. law the right to go onto someone else's property and remove natural products, as by pasturing cattle or fishing (esp in the phrase right of common )
3. Christianity
   1. a form of the proper of the Mass used on festivals that have no special proper of their own
   2. the ordinary of the Mass
4. archaic.
   the ordinary people; the public, esp those undistinguished by rank or title
5. in common
   mutually held or used with another or others

Derived Forms

• ˈcommonness, noun

Other Words From

• common·ness noun
• over·common adjective
• over·common·ly adverb
• over·common·ness noun
• quasi-common adjective
• quasi-common·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of common¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English comun, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin commūnis “common,” presumably originally “sharing common duties,” akin to mūnia “duties of an office,” mūnus “task, duty, gift,” from an unattested base moin-, cognate with mean ²; com-, immune

Word History and Origins

Origin of common¹

C13: from Old French commun, from Latin commūnis general, universal

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. in common, in joint possession or use; shared equally:

   They have a love of adventure in common.

More idioms and phrases containing common

• in common

Synonym Study

See general. Common, vulgar, ordinary refer, often with derogatory connotations of cheapness or inferiority, to what is usual or most often experienced. Common applies to what is accustomed, usually experienced, or inferior, to the opposite of what is exclusive or aristocratic: The park is used by the common people. Vulgar properly means belonging to the people, or characteristic of common people; it connotes low taste, coarseness, or ill breeding: the vulgar view of things; vulgar in manners and speech. Ordinary refers to what is to be expected in the usual order of things; it means average or below average: That is a high price for something of such ordinary quality.

Example Sentences

Astronomers refer to this as the common envelope phase, as both stars become wrapped in the same material.

From Science Daily

These broadly reactive antibodies likely represent a common mechanism of acquired immunity to severe malaria and offer novel insights for the design of a PfEMP1-based vaccine or treatment targeting severe malaria.

From Science Daily

Persistent disruptive behaviour is the most common reason given to suspend or exclude a pupil.

From BBC

A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that long-term use of common cardiovascular drugs is associated with lower risk of dementia later in life.

From Science Daily

Prisoners can be transferred to their home country to serve the balance of their sentence there, though this is less common.

From BBC

Related Words

• accepted
• commonplace
• everyday
• familiar
• frequent
• natural
• prevailing
• prevalent
• routine
• simple
• trivial
• typical
• universal