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.
