commoner
Americannoun
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commoners
plural
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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.
See Examples For:
He’s been called a thief, a benefactor, a commoner, a lord, a killer and a hero.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
One compares her to baseball star Shohei Ohtani, another praises her as a "commoner prime minister".
From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026
Princess Mette-Marit married Norway's Crown Prince Haakon as a commoner when her son Marius Borg Høiby was four, and is in line to become queen when her husband accedes to the throne.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
LONDON—It was supposed to be the moment a shamed prince was reduced to humble commoner.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
And he is a commoner, a yeoman, so I don’t look for him among the gentlemen.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
But old resentments—over the burdens that fell on commoners, or how the wealthy and accomplished had been excluded from privileges—shaped grievances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Ponies, pigs, cattle and donkeys, owned by the New Forest's commoners, are allowed to roam freely on the open forest under ancient rights tied to their properties.
From BBC ● May 15, 2024
While the Italian master depicted commoners lighted by candlelight, Debora’s work illuminates the type of people he grew up with in the Aliso Village housing projects in Boyle Heights.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
It’s nice that Goop is generously tossing cake to the commoners by, among other things, featuring worthwhile non-profit organizations such as Women’s Health Access Matters, the Brooklyn Library’s Books Unbanned initiative and The Ocean Cleanup.
From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2023
Jomon villages and cemeteries do not consist of a few richly decorated houses and graves contrasting with numerous spartan ones but are instead rather uniform—suggesting that there was little social stratification into chiefs and commoners.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
