common
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Shared by many people or things, or happening often
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahmuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɑmən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Mutual; shared by more than one.
Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.
Having no special distinction or quality; widely known or commonly encountered; average or ordinary or usual
Of a quality: existing among virtually all people; universal.
Found in large numbers or in a large quantity; usual.
Simple, ordinary or vulgar.
noun
The people; the community.
Mutual good, shared by more than one.
A tract of land in common ownership; common land.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Mutual; shared by more than one.
Used this way, common is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use common
- “For the common good.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A piece of open land for recreational use in an urban area.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Temperate zone tree bearing downy yellow to rosy fruits.
Grass yielding grain used for breakfast food and animal feed and in malt beverages.
Annual or perennial of tropical Asia having spikes of small white flowers and aromatic leaves.
The common annual twining or bushy bean plant grown for its edible seeds or pods.
Upright deciduous European shrub widely naturalized in United States having clusters of juicy berries.
Annual of western United States with coiled spikes of yellow-orange coiled flowers.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.