community

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government.
2. n. The district or locality in which such a group lives.
3. n. A group of people having common interests: the scientific community; the international business community.
4. n. A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society: the gay community; the community of color.
5. n. Similarity or identity: a community of interests.
6. n. Sharing, participation, and fellowship.
7. n. Society as a whole; the public.
8. n. Ecology A group of plants and animals living and interacting with one another in a specific region under relatively similar environmental conditions.
9. n. Ecology The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Common possession or enjoyment; the holding or sharing of interests, possessions, or privileges in common by two or more individuals: as, a community of goods; community of interests between husband and wife.
2. n. Life in association with others; the social state.
3. n. A number of people associated together by the fact of residence in the same locality, or of subjection to the same local laws and regulations; a village, township, or municipality.
4. n. A society or association of persons having common interests or privileges, commercial, social, political, or ecclesiastical, and subject to the same regulations; now, especially, a society of this nature in which the members reside together or in the same locality: as, the Oneida Community (see below).
5. n. The body of people in a state or commonwealth; the public, or people in general: used in this sense always with the definite article.
6. n. Commonness; frequency.
7. n. In logic, the being possessed in common by several subjects.

Wiktionary

1. n. A group sharing a common understanding and often the same language, manners, tradition and law. See civilization.
2. n. A commune, or residential or religious collective.
3. n. The condition of having certain attitudes and interests in common.
4. n. ecology A group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other.
5. n. Internet A group of people interacting by electronic means for social, professional, educational or other purposes; a virtual community.
6. n. obsolete Common possession or enjoyment; participation.
7. n. obsolete common character; likeness.
8. n. obsolete commonness; frequency

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Common possession or enjoyment; participation.
2. n. A body of people having common rights, privileges, or interests, or living in the same place under the same laws and regulations. Hence a number of animals living in a common home or with some apparent association of interests.
3. n. Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body politic; the public, or people in general.
4. n. rare Common character; likeness.
5. n. obsolete Commonness; frequency.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a group of people living in a particular local area
2. n. a group of nations having common interests
3. n. (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other
4. n. a district where people live; occupied primarily by private residences
5. n. common ownership
6. n. agreement as to goals