common
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
grammar
human-sciences
law
linguistics
natural-sciences
sciences
taxonomy
Etymology: 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”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to exchange, change”). Displaced native Middle English imene, ȝemǣne (“common, general, universal”) (from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English mene, mǣne (“mean, common”) (also from Old English ġemǣne (“common, universal”)), Middle English samen, somen (“in common, together”) (from Old English samen (“together”)). Doublet of gmina and mean.
Inflected forms:
form: commoner
pos: adj
tags: common
comparative
form: most common
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: commonest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: commons
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Mutual; shared by more than one.
pos: adj
examples: The two competitors have the common aim of winning the championship.
Winning the championship is an aim common to the two competitors.
Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
They shared a common dread that he would begin moaning.
gloss: Of a quality: existing among virtually all people; universal.
pos: adj
examples: common knowledge, common decency, common sense
No man of common humanity, no man who had any value for his character, could be capable of it.
gloss: Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.
pos: adj
examples: It is common to find sharks off this coast.
Thus it is sayde in the cōmon vsage.
That loss is common would not make
⁠My own less bitter, rather more:
⁠Too common! Never morning wore
To evening, but some heart did break.
Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.
gloss: Found in large numbers or in a large quantity; usual.
pos: adj
examples: "Commoner" used to be commoner, but "more common" is now more common.
Sharks are common in these waters.
It differs from the common blackbird in the size of its beak.
Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)
Machine learning was the most common method of AI listed in patent requests.
In our daily-diary studies, one source of awe was by far the most common: other people. Regular acts of courage—bystanders defusing fights, subordinates standing up to abusive power holders—inspired awe.
gloss: Simple, ordinary or vulgar.
pos: adj
examples: the common folk
This fact was infamous / And ill beseeming any common man, / Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
above the vulgar flight of common souls
Mr. Crackit (for he it was) had no very great quantity of hair, either upon his head or face, but what he had was of a reddish dye, and tortured into long corkscrew curls, through which he occasionally thrust some very dirty fingers ornamented with large common rings.
Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, […] naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.
If it be asked wherein the utility of some modern extensions of mathematics lies, it must be acknowledged that it is at present difficult to see how they are ever to become applicable to questions of common life or physical science.
She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had expected to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven, burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
gloss: As part of the vernacular name of a species, usually denoting that it is abundant or widely known.
pos: adj
examples: the common daisy (Bellis perennis)
gloss: Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal.
pos: adj
examples: common name vs. scientific name.
gloss: Arising from use or tradition, as opposed to being created by a legislative body.
pos: adj
examples: common law
As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]
gloss: Of, pertaining or belonging to the common gender.
pos: adj
gloss: Of or pertaining to common nouns as opposed to proper nouns.
pos: adj
gloss: Profane; polluted.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
gloss: Given to lewd habits; prostitute.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: a Dame who her self was as Common as the King's High Way
gloss: Mutual good, shared by more than one.
pos: noun
gloss: A tract of land in common ownership; common land.
pos: noun
examples: The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
Throughout the land there is a great variation in the shape and size of village greens, from the many of pocket-handkerchief size to a roadside common of 20 acres or more - as at Lindfield in West Sussex.
gloss: The people; the community.
pos: noun
examples: the weal o' the common
gloss: The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.
pos: noun
Synonyms: average
basic
bog-standard
common
common as bums
common as dirt
common as muck
common as pig tracks
dime a dozen
everyday
frequent
general
habitual
nonrare
par for the course
pedestrian
plain
quotidian
regular
routinary
routine
ten a penny
two a penny
usual
workaday
Antonyms: abnormal
atypical
exceptional
exotic
uncommon
endangered
extraordinary
rare
strange
unconventional
unique
unusual
Related words: frequency
mediocre
normal
Translations: