commons
noun
Form of common , plural of common.
Simple meaning
A public area.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahmuhnzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɑmənz
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.
noun
usually singular in construction
A common (common land); especially, a central section of (usually an older) town, designated as a shared area.
usually singular in construction
A public area, especially a dining hall, at a college or university; a similar shared spaced elsewhere.
The common people collectively, the third estate, the people not belonging to the nobility or clergy
figuratively
The mutual good of all; the abstract concept of resources shared by more than one, for example air, water, information.
A pasture subject to common use
Food in general; rations.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A common (common land); especially, a central section of (usually an older) town, designated as a shared area.
Used this way, commons 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
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
A tract of land in common ownership.
The common people; the commonalty.
Collectively, all the common land in one of those two countries.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Belonging to or participated in by a community as a whole.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The lower house of the British parliament.
The lower house of the British parliament.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.