community

American  

[kuh-myoo-ni-tee] / kəˈmju nɪ ti /

noun

communities plural

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

2. a locality inhabited by such a group.

3. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists: the community of scholars;

   the business community;

   the community of scholars;

   diversity within a college community;

   London's Jewish and Muslim communities.

4. a group of associated nations sharing common interests or a common heritage.

   the community of Western Europe.

5. Ecclesiastical. a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.

6. Ecology. an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area.

7. joint possession, enjoyment, liability, etc..

   community of property.

8. similarity; agreement; identity.

   community of interests.

   Synonyms:

   likeness, correspondence

9. the community, the public; society.

   the needs of the community.

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community British  

/ kəˈmjuːnɪtɪ /

noun

1. 1. the people living in one locality

   2. the locality in which they live

   3. ( as modifier )

      community spirit

2. a group of people having cultural, religious, ethnic, or other characteristics in common

   the Protestant community

3. a group of nations having certain interests in common

4. the public in general; society

5. common ownership or participation

6. similarity or agreement

   community of interests

7. (in Wales since 1974 and Scotland since 1975) the smallest unit of local government; a subdivision of a district

8. ecology a group of interdependent plants and animals inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other through food and other relationships

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community Scientific  

/ kə-myo̅o̅′nĭ-tē /

1. A group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment. The organisms in a community affect each other's abundance, distribution, and evolutionary adaptation. Depending on how broadly one views the interaction between organisms, a community can be small and local, as in a pond or tree, or regional or global, as in a biome.

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Usage

What is a community? A community is a social group whose members have something in common, such as a shared government, geographic location, culture, or heritage. Community can also refer to the physical location where such a group lives. It can refer to a town, city, village, or other area with a formal government whose residents share a nationality or culture, as in A group of town citizens decided to clean up the litter in their community. Community can also refer to the people who live in this area, as in Filipe was able to raise money for the city’s homeless shelter with help from the community. More generally, community can refer to a group that shares some trait or quality that separates it from the wider population as in Tracy was excited to find that the Muslim community in her city often held free talks on being a Muslim American. Example: Ria entered politics to help improve the lives of the people in her community. 

Synonym Usage

Community, hamlet, village, town, city are terms for groups of people living in somewhat close association, and usually under common rules. Community is a general term, and town is often loosely applied. A commonly accepted set of connotations envisages hamlet as a small group, village as a somewhat larger one, town still larger, and city as very large. Size is, however, not the true basis of differentiation, but properly sets off only hamlet. Incorporation, or the absence of it, and the type of government determine the classification of the others.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• communital
  adjective
• procommunity
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• communities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of community

First recorded in 1325–75; from Latin commūnitās, equivalent to commūni(s) “common” + -tās noun suffix; replacing Middle English comunete, from Middle French, from Latin as above; see common, -ty ²;

Explanation

If a number of people consider themselves one group based on location, work, religion, nationality, or even activity, they can be called a community. If you like to play online games, you are active in the gamer community. The original meaning of Latin communitatem "a sense of fellowship" shifted to mean "a specific group of people with a common interest" during the Middle Ages. The modern English word community has both of these meanings available. Street festivals or school fairs can help to develop a sense of community in schools or neighborhoods. If you start a campaign to clean up the community, you want to make the area you live in more attractive.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

community communities

When asked about pushback from the local community, he points instead to the wealth creation.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

Many online reacted with disgust to his video, which was reposted on a community page and picked up by local news outlets.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

“To unlock this potential, we need an effective organization to layer AI on,” Megha Yethadka, Uber’s vice president of global community operations, said in a memo to staff last week.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

If the opposite turns out to be true, parents and voters know how to hold state and community officials accountable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

Tailors, leather workers, cobblers, tanners, weavers, spice dealers, peddlers, merchants, silversmiths, goldsmiths—a whole wonderful community that lived and worked together and flourished—are being forced to leave.

From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar

The task force is a group of organisations representing the seven largest Jewish diaspora communities.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

“Their dedication never goes unnoticed and they are truly heroes to their local communities, Californians and the nation.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

This spring, 12 attorneys general argued that circumventing standard environmental reviews would put communities at risk, among other things.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Some could have remained meaningful places that later communities revisited, modified, or reinterpreted.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

At all the thousands of people leaving the National Mall to go home and rally their own communities against climate change.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

Related Words

• association
• center
• company
• district
• nation
• neighborhood
• people
• public
• society
• state