# commonwealth

Pronunciation: say "KOM-uhn-welth" US /ˈkɑmənˌwɛlθ/, UK /ˈkɒmənˌwɛlθ/, AUS /ˈkɔmənˌwɛlθ/

## Proper noun · Commonwealth

1. A loose confederation of nations based around the former British Empire, formally called the Commonwealth of Nations.
   - Simple: A loose group of countries built around the lands that were once the British Empire.
   - _Trade ministers from across the Commonwealth met to discuss lowering tariffs between member states._
   - _The country was suspended from the Commonwealth after its army seized power._
4. Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, often meaning its federal government in particular. *(Australia)*
   - Simple: Australia, often meaning its national government, not the state governments.
   - _The Premier accused the Commonwealth of short-changing Victoria on hospital funding._
   - _She was charged with defrauding the Commonwealth after claiming Centrelink payments she wasn't entitled to._
5. The English state of 1649 to 1653, and the combined state of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1653 to 1660, both governed without a king. *(British)*
   - Simple: The government of England, and later of Scotland and Ireland too, from 1649 to 1660, when there was no king.
   - _Under the Commonwealth, many couples were married by a magistrate rather than a priest._
   - _Royalist families who had lost their estates under the Commonwealth hoped to recover them after the Restoration._

## Noun

2. A whole society, especially a secular one, organized as a political community or state.
   - Simple: All the people of a country, seen together as one state.
   - _Philosophers have long debated what a just commonwealth owes its poorest members._
   - _Church leaders were expected to stay out of the affairs of the commonwealth._
3. A republic, a state in which power rests with the people rather than with a monarch; often capitalized as Commonwealth.
   - Simple: A country with no king or queen, where the people choose who leads them.
   - _After the revolution, the assembly abolished the crown and declared the nation a commonwealth._
   - _The pamphlet called for a free Commonwealth, with no king and no hereditary lords._

## Noun

6. The well-being of a community taken as a whole. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: How well things are going for a whole community.

## Other meanings

- (proper noun) Within Massachusetts, the state itself, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, often meaning its state government in particular.
- (proper noun) Within Pennsylvania, the state itself, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, often meaning its state government in particular.
- (proper noun) Within Virginia, the state itself, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, often meaning its state government in particular.
- (proper noun) Within Kentucky, the state itself, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, often meaning its state government in particular.
- (proper noun) A neighborhood-level administrative division found in Quezon City, part of the Manila metropolitan region.
- (proper noun) A village-level district of the town of Rosario, in the Philippine province of Northern Samar.
- (proper noun) A village-level district of the town of Aurora, in the Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur.

## Origin

From common (“public”) + wealth (“well-being”), first found around 1450 as common wele (commonweal). The form common-wealth dates from around 1520, when Tyndale used it for "secular society" in particular; from the 1520s it was also treated as a synonym or loan-translation of res publica (republic).

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