Com*mu"ni*ty (?), n.;
pl. Communities (#). [L.
communitas: cf. OF. communité. Cf.
Commonalty, and see Common.]
1. Common possession or enjoyment; participation; as, a community of goods.
The original
community of all things.
Locke.
An unreserved community of thought and feeling.
W.
Irving.
2. A body of people having common rights, privileges, or
interests, or living in the same place under the same laws and regulations; as, a community of monks. Hence a number of
animals living in a common home
or with some apparent association of
interests.
Creatures that in communities exist.
Wordsworth.
3. Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body
politic; the public, or people in general.
Burdens upon the poorer classes of the community.
Hallam.
&fist; In this sense, the term should be used with the definite article; as, the interests of the community.
4. Common character; likeness. [R.]
The essential community of nature between organic growth and inorganic growth.
H. Spencer.
5.
Commonness; frequency. [Obs.]
Eyes . .
. sick and blunted with community.
Shak.
Hear it pronounced