Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government.
- n. The district or locality in which such a group lives.
- n. A group of people having common interests: the scientific community; the international business community.
- n. A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society: the gay community; the community of color.
- n. Similarity or identity: a community of interests.
- n. Sharing, participation, and fellowship.
- n. Society as a whole; the public.
- n. Ecology A group of plants and animals living and interacting with one another in a specific region under relatively similar environmental conditions.
- n. Ecology The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. Life in association with others; the social state.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- n. Commonness; frequency.
- n. In logic, the being possessed in common by several subjects.
Wiktionary
- n. Group of people sharing a common understanding who reveal themselves by using the same language, manners, tradition and law. (see civilization).
- n. Commune or residential/religious collective.
- n. The condition of having certain attitudes and interests in common.
- n. A group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other.
- n. A group of people interacting by electronic means for social, professional, educational or other purposes. (see virtual_community).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Common possession or enjoyment; participation.
- 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.
- n. Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body politic; the public, or people in general.
- n. Common character; likeness.
- n. Commonness; frequency.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a group of people living in a particular local area
- n. a group of nations having common interests
- n. (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other
- n. a district where people live; occupied primarily by private residences
- n. common ownership
- n. agreement as to goals
Etymologies
- Middle English communite, citizenry, from Old French, from Latin commūnitās, fellowship, from commūnis, common; see common.
Examples
“How else would we have developed such a “tight-knit community”, with * community* being the key word?”
“What you're describing in fact as "the community" is *your little grouplet you feel is the community* where someone with a pre-existing RL connection or game connection to a friend/colleague in ACS ginned this thing up.”
State of Play Virtual Architecture 1.0: Contest Judges Say Enough with the Simulacra Already
“The concept of community management contains the word community.”
“Judging of things by the light of human prudence, he thought the community could never raise itself again to the position it occupied before the fire, and wishing to prevent a multiplicity of institutions in his diocese, he formed the design of uniting the _rising community_ to the _Ursulines_ at Quebec.”
“A community that is to any extent governed from without, like British India or London, is not a State, but part of a State, for it is not a _perfect community_.”
“So we don't, for example, put a lot of effort into finding a way to control the alcoholism of aboriginals, or trying to stop domestic violence and gangs in the Sikh community, or put a lid on fraud in the Chinese community* because we don't want to admit out loud that these problems exist.”
“_patronized_; patronized, not by a few persons, not by one half, or three fourths even of a community, but by the _whole community_.”
Popular Education For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes
“In a speech today, Brown will say: "I want serving your community to become a normal part of growing up in every community, because everyone has something unique to give and a great deal to gain from doing so.”
Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
“In education, the term "community partners" often conjures images of parent groups or local businesses who assist with fundraising drives.”
The Huffington Post: Alison Suffet Diaz: Keeping it Real: When the Community Becomes the Classroom
“The Latin community is a very Catholic community," continued Vergara, 38.”
The Huffington Post: 'Modern Family' Honored For Portrayal Of Diverse America
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘community’.
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Academic Vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3092 more...
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Keywords, by Raymond Williams
From a book about life and death.
aesthetic, alienation, art, behaviour, bourgeois, bureaucracy, capitalism, career, charity, city, civilization, class and 99 more...
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Groups
Words synonymous with 'group.'
congregation, crowd, gaggle, flock, clique, bunch, cluster, herd, mass, mob, multitude, organization and 118 more...
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Features
What are we looking for? What would we like? What do we need? What's here already? What do we miss?
some HTML, orthoepist, comments on lists, comments on profiles, trending words, Random word, Word of the day, pronunciations, comments on tags, new lists, contributors, profile list of tags and 24 more...
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• Senses
They told you they're five.
sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, proprioception, balance, temperature, parking, rhythm, business, snow and 68 more...
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Technology
forum, profile, identify, register, user, community, sign in, text, address, inbox, key, screen and 53 more...
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UO Digi-Scholars List
A list of words for creating a new name for the U of O Digital Scholars Group.
oregon, northwest, cascadia, pacific, collaboratory, consortium, community, interdisciplinary, research, scholars, scholarly, media and 12 more...
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Happy Therapy
Starting up a therapeutic service? Here are some words you can sprinkle throughout your brochure to sell your particular brand of change.
holistic, integration, nurture, exploration, acceptance, treatment, empower, supportive, teamwork, development, change, community and 14 more...
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Vivify
Bring to life
community, belonging, culture, social, context, choice, freedom, possibility, transform, design
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4name
let's rock

tchaymore @chained_bear Great quote! Judge Learned Hand, aside from having one of the best names ever, has some great quotes. Feb 25, 2012
ruzuzu Takchess, when you go to one of your favorite lists, there should be an option at the top which says "love." Click on that to "favorite" the list. If that isn't available or doesn't work, we can go to the feedback thingee and ask there. Feb 21, 2012
takchess Question for the Management or the Community at Large....
I know I can add a word as a favorite; can I or will I later be able to add a fellow member's list as a favorite? If so, how ?
Feb 21, 2012
chained_bear 'Judge Learned Hand, one of Simon Flexner's closest friends, later observed, "That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where nonconformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, becomes a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent."'
—John M. Barry, The Great Influenza (NY: Penguin Books, 2004), 125
Feb 13, 2009
reesetee I agree, yarb. Check out uselessness' A Collectivist Utopia list (if you haven't already). :-) Jan 8, 2008
yarb I've never liked this word. Everyone seems to want to put me in some community or other. Politicians, marketers. It's really an emasculated word in my opinion. Jan 8, 2008
planspark "A community is a group of people who form relationships over time by interacting regularly around shared experiences, which are of interest to all of them for varying individual reasons." -- Jake McGee, 2005/02/28 (Source) Jan 8, 2008
grantneufeld Certainly much misused and maligned in corporate and technology circles, ‘community’ remains an extremely critical word in work for constructive social change.
The destruction of meaningful community in “western�? societies is a key component of the social and environmental problems in the world today. The dissociation that is enmeshed in virtually all aspects of the “modern�? industrial/post-industrial society is at the root of our social ailments—which we cannot truly hope to overcome without finding ways to bring people together to form viable, ongoing and sustainable interconnections. Feb 22, 2007
shii God I hate this word. Feb 12, 2007
bkerr I just spent 30 minutes in a meeting where participants (unsuccessfully) tried to decide what they meant by "community." Dec 15, 2006