commonality

[kom-uh-nal-i-tee]

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noun, plural com·mon·al·i·ties.

a sharing of features or characteristics in common; possession or manifestation of common attributes.

a feature or characteristic held in common: Historians perceive commonalities of behavior in many eras.

commonalty(def 1).

Origin of commonality

1350–1400; Middle English; partial Latinization of commonalty, on basis of presumed Latin *commūnālitās (see -ity)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for commonality

plebeian, populace, commoner, pleb, commonalty, public, common

Examples from the Web for commonality

Contemporary Examples of commonality

Behind the scenes, the shows share many more points of commonality.
Orange Is the New Weeds: The Adventures of Jenji Kohan Across the 8th Dimension
Rich Goldstein, Emily Shire
August 18, 2014
The tone of the original series is vastly different, with few points of commonality save for the talking dog.
The Weird Existential Genius of ‘Wilfred’
Rich Goldstein
June 25, 2014
Now, because of the commonality of the problem, he says, celebrities “are more apt to come forward and report these cases.”
Rock Star Shirley Manson From Garbage Battles a Cyberstalker
Christine Pelisek, Chris Lee
July 16, 2012

Historical Examples of commonality

Oh, I envy the lot of the commonality in the Rational State!
Crome Yellow
Aldous Huxley
His disdain for the commonality of life still dictated his prejudices.
The Three Black Pennys
Joseph Hergesheimer
Teacher's Pet might be dowered with all the virtues, but we of the commonality would have none of them.
By the Christmas Fire
Samuel McChord Crothers
The other commonality this stretch of road shared with Detroit was the obesity of the people she passed.
Makers
Cory Doctorow
The commonality of Venice imagine themselves free, because they are permitted to do, what they ought not.
Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies
John Dickinson

British Dictionary definitions for commonality

commonality

noun plural -ties

the fact of being common to more than one individual; commonness

another word for commonalty (def. 1)

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

Word Origin and History for commonality

late 14c., "a community," from common (adj.), as if from Latin *communalitas. A respelling of commonalty (late 13c.). Meaning "the common people" is attested from 1580s; that of "state or quality of being shared" is from 1954.