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common

[ kom-uhn ]

/ ˈkɒm ən /

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See synonyms for: common / commoner / commonest / commons on Thesaurus.com

adjective, com·mon·er, com·mon·est.

belonging equally to, or shared alike by, two or more or all in question: common property;common interests.

pertaining or belonging equally to an entire community, nation, or culture; public: a common language or history;a common water-supply system.

joint; united: a common defense.

widespread; general; universal: common knowledge.

of frequent occurrence; usual; familiar: a common event;a common mistake.

hackneyed; trite.

of mediocre or inferior quality; mean; low: a rough-textured suit of the most common fabric.

coarse; vulgar: common manners.

lacking rank, station, distinction, etc.; unexceptional; ordinary: a common soldier;common people;the common man;a common thief.

Dialect. friendly; sociable; unaffected.

Anatomy. forming or formed by two or more parts or branches: the common carotid arteries.

Prosody. (of a syllable) able to be considered as either long or short.

Grammar.

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.
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.
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.
(of a noun) belonging to the common gender.

Mathematics. bearing a similar relation to two or more entities.

of, relating to, or being common stock: common shares.

noun

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.

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 ).

commons, (used with a singular or plural verb)

the commonalty; the nonruling class.
the body of people not of noble birth or not ennobled, as represented in England by the House of Commons.
Commons, the representatives of this body.
Commons, the House of Commons.

commons,

(used with a singular verb) a large dining room, especially at a university or college.
(usually used with a plural verb)British. food provided in such a dining room.
(usually used with a plural verb) food or provisions for any group.

Sometimes Commons .Ecclesiastical.

an office or form of service used on a festival of a particular kind.
the ordinary of the Mass, especially those parts sung by the choir.
the part of the missal and breviary containing Masses and offices of those saints assigned to them.

Obsolete.

the community or public.
the common people.

SYNONYMS FOR common

4 prevalent, popular; accepted.

5 customary, habitual, everyday.

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ANTONYMS FOR common

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Idioms for common

in common, in joint possession or use; shared equally: They have a love of adventure in common.

Origin of common

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 mean²; cf. com-, immune

synonym study for common

4. See general. 7-9. 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.

OTHER WORDS FROM common

com·mon·ness, nouno·ver·com·mon, adjectiveo·ver·com·mon·ly, adverbo·ver·com·mon·ness, noun

quasi-common, adjectivequa·si-com·mon·ly, adverb

Words nearby common

commodity, commodity exchange, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, commodore, Commodus, common, commonable, commonage, Common Agricultural Policy, commonality, commonalty

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

How to use common in a sentence

Students would have a fully equipped laptop to call their own as well as one that didn’t lack key functionalities, which is common among donated devices.
The coronavirus pandemic is expanding California’s digital divide|Walter Thompson|July 9, 2020|TechCrunch
The company’s financial history is occluded — common with private companies — and a bit uneven.
Coinbase reported to consider late 2020, early 2021 public debut|Alex Wilhelm|July 9, 2020|TechCrunch
Residents often live four to a room, share a bathroom, and congregate in crowded common spaces.
Canada’s “national shame”: Covid-19 in nursing homes|Sigal Samuel|July 7, 2020|Vox
The system can’t be easily reverse-engineered to determine what it learned to pay attention to during training — a common problem for researchers trying to use AI to do science.
Why Is Glass Rigid? Signs of Its Secret Structure Emerge.|John Pavlus|July 7, 2020|Quanta Magazine

Accounts on these platforms were all registered using a handful of common email addresses and phone numbers.
FBI nabs Nigerian business scammer who allegedly cost victims millions|Timothy B. Lee|July 6, 2020|Ars Technica
The email appears to have been a relatively common attempt to gain personal information from a wide range of unwitting victims.
Was Sony Hit With a Second Hack?|Shane Harris|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The vaccine is delivered through a “carrier virus” that causes a common cold in chimpanzees but does not affect humans.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Another read: “We need leaders who will stand against Common Core.”
Rand Paul’s Passive-Aggressive Trolling Campaign|Olivia Nuzzi|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Finding the common bonds that help us realize that we have far more in common than that which separates us.
In 2015, Let’s Try for More Compassion|Gene Robinson|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
At the time, screen quotas were far more common among film producing industries.
Propaganda, Protest, and Poisonous Vipers: The Cinema War in Korea|Rich Goldstein|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The Smooth Naked Horsetail is a common plant, specially by the sides of streams and pools.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
I would ask you to imagine it translated into every language, a common material of understanding throughout all the world.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Our social life is aimless without it, we are a crowd without a common understanding.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Diplococci without capsules are common in the sputum, but have no special significance.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
He had discovered that the all-glorious boast of Spain was not exempt from the infirmities of common men.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter

British Dictionary definitions for common

common

/ (ˈkɒmən) /

adjective

belonging to or shared by two or more peoplecommon property

belonging to or shared by members of one or more nations or communities; publica common culture

of ordinary standard; averagecommon decency

prevailing; widespreadcommon opinion

widely known or frequently encountered; ordinarya common brand of soap

widely known and notoriousa common nuisance

derogatory considered by the speaker to be low-class, vulgar, or coarsea common accent

(prenominal) having no special distinction, rank, or statusthe common man

maths

having a specified relationship with a group of numbers or quantitiescommon denominator
(of a tangent) tangential to two or more circles

prosody (of a syllable) able to be long or short, or (in nonquantitative verse) stressed or unstressed

grammar (in certain languages) denoting or belonging to a gender of nouns, esp one that includes both masculine and feminine referentsLatin sacerdos is common

anatomy

having branchesthe common carotid artery
serving more than one functionthe common bile duct

Christianity of or relating to the common of the Mass or divine office

common or garden informal ordinary; unexceptional

noun

(sometimes plural) a tract of open public land, esp one now used as a recreation area

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)

Christianity

a form of the proper of the Mass used on festivals that have no special proper of their own
the ordinary of the Mass

archaic the ordinary people; the public, esp those undistinguished by rank or title

in common mutually held or used with another or others

See also commons

Derived forms of common

commonness, noun

Word Origin for common

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Idioms and Phrases with common

common

In addition to the idioms beginning with common

common cause
common ground
common touch, the

also see:

in common

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.