What does "community" mean?
A group sharing common characteristics, such as the same language, law, religion, or tradition.
Community
/kəˈmjuː.nɪ.ti/ noun
noun ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A group sharing common characteristics, such as the same language, law, religion, or tradition.
- Grammar: community is listed as noun.
- Nearest alternatives: accord, accordance, affiliation, affinity.
- Useful contrasts: academic loneliness, narrative loneliness, alienation.
- Usage evidence: The students volunteered for community service.
How to use "community"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "community" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "community" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "community" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "community" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "community" is acting as noun in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "accord" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "community", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A group sharing common characteristics, such as the same language, law, religion, or tradition. countable
"[W]e are not borne to our ſelues alone, but the prince, the countrie, the parents, freends, wiues, children and familie, euerie of them doo claime an intereſt in vs, and to euerie of them we muſt be beneficiall: otherwiſe we doo degenerate from that communitie and ſocietie, which by ſuch offices by vs is to be conſtrued, & doo become moſt vnprofitable: […]"
- 2 (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other wordnet
- 3 A residential or religious collective; a commune. countable
"The Beguines, an uncloistered religiously inspired woman's movement began about the year 1210 in Liége, Belgium. Generally the Beguines lived in community or in small cottages behind a wall. At times threatened as heretics, they were finally disbanded by the Reformation."
- 4 a group of people having a religion, ethnic, profession, or other particular characteristic in common wordnet
- 5 A group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other. countable
"Synecology has for the objects of its study, not individual organisms but biological communities, which are groups of organisms living in a given space, the properties of which space select a certain assemblage of organisms of definite autecological characteristics. Such communities are moreover not merely collections of organisms of restricted autecology, but tend to become organized by the biotic relationships that exist beteen the various individuals comprising the community."
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 a group of people living in a particular local area wordnet
- 7 A group of people interacting by electronic means for educational, professional, social, or other purposes; a virtual community. Internet, countable
"Spam texts are encoded but no decryption is possible. There is no plaintext message. I find them wonderful, and read them as poetics, as odd fragments generative of narrtives and scenography. I find the process of their production wonderful as well. The texts are written to elude community standards and means of censorship, and at the same time to enter and impose themselves into the standards and means for the community to read itself."
- 8 a group of nations having common interests wordnet
- 9 The condition of having certain attitudes and interests in common. uncountable
"We hope to demonstrate that Paul understood the local community to be the sphere in which and the means through which the five components of the maturation process were facilitated, thus concluding that Paul expected believers to be confirmed to Christ in community."
- 10 a district where people live; occupied primarily by private residences wordnet
- 11 Common enjoyment or possession; participation. countable, obsolete
"a community of goods"
- 12 common ownership wordnet
- 13 Common character; likeness. obsolete, uncountable
"We are now in the ninth year of the anarchy of France. […] A diſpoſition to peace has been diſplayed, without conſideration of the royal family of France. The natural horror at the effuſion of blood cannot be too ſtrong, and might of itſelf perſuade us to any ſort of peace; but it is a great queſtion, whether in this we ſhould loſe our natural horror at crime. Peace with France cannot be friendſhip with France. There can be no community between us and them, unleſs by allying ourſelves with murder, and ſanctioning and ſharing in the pillage of thieves."
- 14 agreement as to goals wordnet
- 15 Commonness; frequency. obsolete, uncountable
"So when he had occaſion to be ſeene, / He was but as the Cuckoe is in Iune, / Heard, not regarded: Seene, but with ſuch eie / As ſicke and blunted with communitie, / Affoord no extraordinary gaze."
- 16 A local area within a county or county borough which is the lowest tier of local government, usually represented by a community council or town council, which is generally equivalent to a civil parish in England. Wales, countable
Antonyms
Example
"The students volunteered for community service."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "community"?
Common synonyms include: accord, accordance, affiliation, affinity, agape, agreement.
How do you use "community" in a sentence?
The students volunteered for community service.
How do you pronounce "community"?
Pronounced /kəˈmjuː.nɪ.ti/.
Etymology
From Late Middle English communite, borrowed from Old French communité, comunité, comunete (modern French communauté), from Classical Latin commūnitās (“community; public spirit”), from commūn(is) (“common, ordinary; of or for the community, public”) + -itās. By surface analysis, commun(e) + -ity. Doublet of communitas.