commune1
Pronunciation: /ˈkɒmjuːn/
noun
- 1a group of people living together and sharing possessions and responsibilities: she went to California and joined a commune
- a communal settlement in a communist country: we all went out of Beijing by bus to spend a morning at a commune
- 2the smallest French territorial division for administrative purposes: very few of the abbey’s vineyards were actually located within the commune of Hautvillers
- a territorial division similar to a French commune in other countries.
- 3 (the Commune) the group which seized the municipal government of Paris in the French Revolution and played a leading part in the Reign of Terror until suppressed in 1794.
- (also the Paris Commune) the municipal government organized on communalistic principles that was elected in Paris in 1871. It was soon brutally suppressed by government troops.
Origin:
late 17th century (in commune1 (sense 2)): from French, from medieval Latin communia, neuter plural of Latin communis (see common)