commoner
Americannoun
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a common person, as distinguished from one with rank, status, etc.
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British.
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any person ranking below a peer; a person without a title of nobility.
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a member of the House of Commons.
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(at Oxford and some other universities) a student who pays the cost to dine at the commons and other expenses and is not supported by any scholarship or foundation.
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a person who has a joint right in common land.
noun
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a person who does not belong to the nobility
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a person who has a right in or over common land jointly with another or others
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a student at a university or other institution who is not on a scholarship
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of commoner
First recorded in 1350–1400; common + -er 1 ( def. )
Vocabulary lists containing commoner
Aztec, Maya, and Inca Empires - Introductory
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Aztec, Maya, and Inca Empires - Middle School and High School
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European Colonization of North America, Lessons 3–5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The first book I read about it, some 50 years ago, was “The Closing Circle,” by Barry Commoner, which lays out the damage humans had already done to the ecosphere.
From Washington Post • Aug. 28, 2022
Commoner wanted to avoid the traditional campaign’s emphasis on images and symbols.
From Time • Dec. 2, 2016
As individuals, the gaudy businessman from New York City and the Great Commoner from the prairies don’t have much in common.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 15, 2016
Some of the most influential leaders of the movement, including Barry Commoner and Rachel Carson, broadened their attention to other ways that technology seemed to threaten human health or nature itself.
From Slate • Jun. 5, 2014
Brook Taylor, well known to mathematicians as the discoverer of "Taylor's theorem," entered as a Fellow Commoner 3rd April 1701.
From St. John's College, Cambridge by New, E. H. (Edmund Hort)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
