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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.
noun
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Idioms about 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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use common in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for common

common
/ (ˈkɒmən) /

adjective
noun
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

Other Idioms and Phrases with common

common

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