# commons

Pronunciation: say "KOM-uhnz" US /ˈkɑmənz/, UK /ˈkɒmənz/

## Noun

1. A public area at a college or university, especially a dining hall; a similar shared space elsewhere.
   - Simple: A shared room or building at a college, especially the dining hall.
   - _The commons serves three meals a day during term._
   - _Freshmen gather in the commons between lectures to compare notes._
2. Common land; especially, a central open area of an older town set aside for shared use.
   - Simple: An open piece of land in a town that everyone can use, often a green in the middle.
   - _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._
3. The common people collectively; the third estate, those belonging neither to the nobility nor to the clergy.
   - Simple: In the past, ordinary people, not nobles or priests.
   - _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._
4. The mutual good of all, or resources shared by more than one, such as air, water, or information.
   - Simple: Things that everyone shares and depends on, such as clean air or the sea.
   - _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._
5. Plural of common. — plural of common
   - Simple: Plural of common. Use it for more than one common.
   - _The enclosure acts turned thousands of commons into private fields._
   - _Rights over the commons were recorded parish by parish._
6. Food in general; rations.
   - Simple: Food in general, especially the daily food given to a group.
   - _Short commons and long marches broke the army before the enemy did._
   - _The boarding school's commons were plain but plentiful._
7. In historical use, the free burghers or bourgeoisie of a town, taken collectively.
   - Simple: In the past, the free citizens of a town, thought of as one group.
   - _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._

## Verb

8. Third-person singular simple present of common. *(obsolete)* — third-person singular simple present indicative of common
   - Simple: Third-person singular present of common, an old verb meaning to talk or to share with others.

## Noun

9. At Oxford, food served at a fixed rate from the college buttery, as distinct from battels. *(obsolete, UK)*
   - Simple: In old Oxford use, the plain food a college sold at a fixed price.
   - _In those days an Oxford undergraduate paid for his commons by the term at the buttery._
   - _The buttery book recorded each man's commons against his name._
10. An outhouse: an obsolete euphemism. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old, polite word for an outdoor toilet.
   - _With no plumbing in the house, a guest who needed the toilet was shown the path to the commons behind the woodshed._
   - _The inn's commons stood a discreet distance from the kitchen door._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/commons (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).