commonness

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com·mon

(kŏm′ən)

adj. com·mon·er, com·mon·est

a. Belonging equally to or shared equally by two or more; joint: common interests.

b. Of or relating to the community as a whole; public: for the common good.

2. Widespread; prevalent: Gas stations became common as the use of cars grew.

a. Occurring frequently or habitually; usual: It is common for movies to last 90 minutes or more.

b. Most widely known; ordinary: the common housefly.

4. Having no special designation, status, or rank: a common sailor.

a. Not distinguished by superior or noteworthy characteristics; average: the common spectator.

b. Of no special quality; standard: common procedure.

c. Of mediocre or inferior quality; second-rate: common cloth.

6. Unrefined or coarse in manner; vulgar: behavior that branded him as common.

7. Grammar

a. Either masculine or feminine in gender.

b. Representing one or all of the members of a class; not designating a unique entity.

1. commons The common people; commonalty.

2. commons(used with a sing. or pl. verb)

a. The social class composed of commoners.

b. The parliamentary representatives of this class.

3. Commons The House of Commons.

4. A tract of land, usually in a centrally located spot, belonging to or used by a community as a whole: a band concert on the village common.

5. The legal right of a person to use the lands or waters of another, as for fishing.

6. commons(used with a sing. verb) A building or hall for dining, typically at a university or college.

7. Common stock.

8. Ecclesiastical A service used for a particular class of festivals.

Idiom:

in common

Equally with or by all.

[Middle English commune, from Old French commun, from Latin commūnis; see mei- in Indo-European roots.]

com′mon·ly adv.

com′mon·ness n.

Synonyms: common , ordinary , familiar
These adjectives describe what is generally known or frequently encountered. Common applies to what takes place often, is widely used, or is well known: The botanist studied the common dandelion. The term also implies coarseness or a lack of distinction: My wallet was stolen by a common thief. Ordinary describes something usual that is indistinguishable from others, sometimes derogatorily: "His neighbors were all climbing into their cars and trucks and heading off to work as if nothing miraculous had happened and this were just another ordinary day" (Steve Yarbrough).
Familiar applies to what is well known or quickly recognized: Most children can recite familiar nursery rhymes. See Also Synonyms at general.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	commonness - the state of being that is commonly observed expectedness normalcy, normality - being within certain limits that define the range of normal functioning
	2.	commonness - the quality of lacking taste and refinement grossness, raunch, vulgarity, vulgarism, coarseness inelegance - the quality of lacking refinement and good taste
	3.	commonness - ordinariness as a consequence of being frequent and commonplace commonplaceness, everydayness ordinariness, mundaneness, mundanity - the quality of being commonplace and ordinary prosaicness, prosiness - commonplaceness as a consequence of being humdrum and not exciting usualness - commonness by virtue of not being unusual uncommonness - extraordinariness as a consequence of being rare and seldom encountered
	4.	commonness - sharing of common attributes commonality generality - the quality of being general or widespread or having general applicability solidarity - a union of interests or purposes or sympathies among members of a group

Translations

общность

commonness

[ˈkɒmənnɪs] N

1. (= frequency) → frecuencia f

2. (= vulgarity) → ordinariez f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

commonness

(= frequency) → Häufigkeit f; (of word also) → weite Verbreitung, Geläufigkeit f; (of experience also) → Allgemeinheit f

(= vulgarity) → Gewöhnlichkeit f; (of person also) → ordinäre Art

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

commonness

[ˈkɒmənnɪs] n (of method, belief) → diffusione f; (of occurrence) → frequenza; (of person, accent) → grossolanità, volgarità

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

Among our valued friends is there not some one or other who is a little too self-confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native.

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But nothing contributes more to produce a clearness of diction that is remote from commonness than the lengthening, contraction, and alteration of words.

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Her cheeks were red with anger, and when she answered her voice had the hard commonness which she concealed generally by a genteel enunciation.

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Suzanne was one of his favorites, a clever, ambitious girl, made of the stuff of a Sophie Arnold, and handsome withal, as the handsomest courtesan invited by Titian to pose on black velvet for a model of Venus; although her face, fine about the eyes and forehead, degenerated, lower down, into commonness of outline.

She let him do as he liked, although in the street she was offish enough to other men, refusing their familiarities partly from decorum and partly for contempt for their commonness. She now stood audaciously in front of the chevalier, who, having fathomed in his day many other mysteries in minds that were far more wily, took in the situation at a single glance.

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Before the eyes of his chief priest he disdained to lower himself to such commonness of humanity.

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Since the wood-cutters, and the railroad, and I myself have profaned Walden, perhaps the most attractive, if not the most beautiful, of all our lakes, the gem of the woods, is White Pond; -- a poor name from its commonness, whether derived from the remarkable purity of its waters or the color of its sands.

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he had assented to the idea that she was "common"; but was she so, after all, or was he simply getting used to her commonness? Her conversation was chiefly of what metaphysicians term the objective cast, but every now and then it took a subjective turn.

Costello had pronounced her; yet it was a wonder to Winterbourne that, with her commonness, she had a singularly delicate grace.

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The different elements contributed to the modern English character by the latest stocks which have been united in it have been indicated by Matthew Arnold in a famous passage ('On the Study of Celtic Literature'): 'The Germanic [Anglo-Saxon and 'Danish'] genius has steadiness as its main basis, with commonness and humdrum for its defect, fidelity to nature for its excellence.

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Elisabeth Baudoyer, nee Saillard, is one of those persons who escape portraiture through their utter commonness; yet who ought to be sketched, because they are specimens of that second-rate Parisian bourgeoisie which occupies a place above the well-to-do artisan and below the upper middle classes,--a tribe whose virtues are well-nigh vices, whose defects are never kindly, but whose habits and manners, dull and insipid though they be, are not without a certain originality.

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He provided insight into the Haj, highlighting a lesson from Malcom X's memoirs that reflects on the commonness of humankind without any race barriers.

Residents of Naperville and Suburbs of All Faiths Celebrate Eid with Gaiety and Fervor

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