communism

noun

Simple meaning

Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kahmyuhnihzuhm

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɑmjənɪzəm

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution.
Any political social system that implements a communist political philosophy.
The international socialist society where classes, money, and the state no longer exist.
The ideology of political parties that use the term Communist in their names, usually Marxist and Leninist.
The socio-economic system based on such parties' ideologies.
usinformal
A state of affairs perceived as oppressive, overly arbitrary, or totalitarian.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Formality: Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution.

Used this way, communism is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in academic writing and government or politics contexts.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

Academic writing
Government/politics

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use communism

“The history class learned about the principles of communism.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

international communismsoviet communismworld communism

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

communitynounDerived noun · specialist
A group of people living in a particular local area.
communistadjectiveDerived adjective
Related to Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution.
communaladjectiveDerived adjective
Related to Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

communism peaknounCompound term
The highest mountain peak in the Pamir Mountains.
mount communismnounCompound term
The highest mountain peak in the Pamir Mountains.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.