commons

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A public area at a college or university, especially a dining hall; a similar shared space elsewhere.

   The commons serves three meals a day during term.

   Freshmen gather in the commons between lectures to compare notes.

   Similarcafeteria, refectory

   Note

   Plural in form, usually singular in use: the commons serves dinner, with the verb agreeing as if the word were hall. That habit can trip up learners, since the word looks like a plural of common yet names one shared room, most often the campus dining hall. A plural verb is not wrong, only less usual, and the singular habit follows the word when it is stretched to comparable shared spaces beyond a college.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Common land; especially, a central open area of an older town set aside for shared use.

   The commons of New England towns are a large part of their charm.

   Cattle once grazed on the commons that is now the town's bandstand lawn.

   Similargreen

   Note

   A town's green can be called a common or a commons, and both name the same shared land at the heart of an older town, ringed by the village hall, the school and the church. Like the college hall, one green takes a singular verb. Speak of the commons of several towns and the verb turns plural: the commons of New England towns are part of their charm.

3. 3
   noun

   The common people collectively; the third estate, those belonging neither to the nobility nor to the clergy.

   Marlowe's nobles speak in the name of the other Persian states and commons of the monarchy.

   The commons had no voice in the council until they were summoned to grant taxes.

   Similarpeople, populace, masses

   Oppositenobility, aristocracy

   Note

   Here the word names people, not ground. Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587–1588) shows it at work. The nobles speak "in the name of other Persian states, And commons of this mighty Monarchy," setting the two orders side by side as they jointly offer the crown. It is always collective, meaning the whole order taken together. A single member of it is never a commons.

4. 4
   nounfigurativelycountable

   The mutual good of all, or resources shared by more than one, such as air, water, or information.

   The tragedy of the commons is that no one will sacrifice for a good everyone shares.

   Open-source software is often described as a digital commons.

   Note

   The shared pasture of the town common is stretched here into an idea, so the word can cover goods no one could ever fence in. Its most familiar setting is the phrase tragedy of the commons: a good that belongs to everyone suffers because no one will give up private or family interest to protect it. The Latin res communis, a thing belonging to all, names the same notion.

5. 5
   noun

   Plural of common.

   The enclosure acts turned thousands of commons into private fields.

   Rights over the commons were recorded parish by parish.

   Note

   The ordinary plural, for several tracts of common land or several rights of common: the commons of a parish, rights over the commons. It takes a plural verb (the commons were enclosed). That is the quickest way to tell it from the college hall and the town green, where a single place wears a plural ending.

6. 6
   noun

   Food in general; rations.

   Short commons and long marches broke the army before the enemy did.

   The boarding school's commons were plain but plentiful.

   Similarrations, provisions, fare, food

   Note

   Short commons is where this sense lives: to be on short commons is to have too little to eat, whether through siege, hardship or thrift. Unlike the Oxford buttery allowance, it is not tied to any institution. It means simply whatever food there is to go around.

7. 7
   nounhistorical

   In historical use, the free burghers or bourgeoisie of a town, taken collectively.

   The commons of London sent their own petition to the king.

   Guild masters spoke for the commons of the borough in disputes with the abbey.

   Similarburghers, citizens, bourgeoisie, freemen

   Note

   Narrower than the common people as a whole, this historical sense means the free citizens of one town acting as a body. It usually arrives with the town attached, as in the commons of London or the commons of the borough. Without that name, a reader will hear the broader social meaning.

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