Common (2024)

FAQs

What is the meaning of the word Common? ›

: belonging to or shared by two or more individuals or things or by all members of a group. a common friend.

/ˈkɒmən/ Other forms: commonest; commons. When something's common, it's usual, or it happens frequently. It's more common than you might think for little kids to be terrified of clowns. Things that are common happen all the time — they're ordinary.

Synonyms: accepted, popular, prevalent. of frequent occurrence; usual; familiar: a common event; a common mistake. Synonyms: everyday, habitual, customary.

If you describe someone or their behavior as common, you mean that they show a lack of taste, education, and good manners. [mainly British, disapproval] She might be a little common at times, but she was certainly not boring. Synonyms: vulgar, low, inferior, coarse More Synonyms of common.

Meaning of c'mon in English

short form of come on: Oh c'mon, you don't really mean that! Expressions telling people to hurry up.

The word common means that something occurs often or is prevalent. The word normal is less straightforward to define, because it can mean different things in different contexts. But if we are using it in a biological sense it means naturally occurring and free from disease.

Examples from Collins dictionaries

His name was Hansen, a common name in Norway. Oil pollution is the commonest cause of death for seabirds. Earthquakes are not common in this part of the world. It was common practice for prisoners to carve objects from animal bones to pass the time.

common adjective (USUAL)

the same in a lot of places or for a lot of people: It's quite common to see couples who dress alike. "Smith" is a very common name in Britain. Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples. happening or seen often.

layman, layperson, secular. someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person. pleb, plebeian. one of the common people. prole, proletarian, worker.

What is a better word for "in common"? ›

in common (adjective as in common) Strongest matches. accepted popular prevailing prevalent shared universal.

A commoner, also known as the common man, commoners, the common people or the masses, was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither royalty, nobility, nor any part of the aristocracy.

of mediocre or inferior quality; mean; low.

Definitions of common people. noun. people in general (often used in the plural) “the common people determine the group character and preserve its customs from one generation to the next” synonyms: folk, folks.

“Common” implies a lack of class. As an insult it is rooted in snobbery and harks back to a time when the middle classes looked to the aristocracy for inspiration on matters such as manners and etiquette. If you knew how to use a knife and fork properly you were alright and if you didn't, you were “common”.

1300, "belonging to all, owned or used jointly, general, of a public nature or character," from Old French comun "common, general, free, open, public" (9c., Modern French commun), from Latin communis "in common, public, shared by all or many; general, not specific; familiar, not pretentious." This is from a ...

Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary app. [usually before noun] shared by or belonging to two or more people or by the people in a group. They share a common interest in photography. to have a common ancestor/enemy. the need to cooperate to achieve a common goal.

From Middle English comun, from Anglo-Norman comun, from Old French comun (rare in the Gallo-Romance languages, but reinforced as a Carolingian calque of Proto-West Germanic *gamainī (“common”) in Old French), from Latin commūnis (“common, public, general”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱom-moy-ni-s (“held in common”), ...