commonwealth

noun

• 1an independent state or community, especially a democratic republic.
• an aggregate or grouping of states or other bodies: a union or commonwealth of democratic, self-governing countries
• a community of shared interests in a non-political field:the Christian commonwealth the commonwealth of letters
• a self-governing unit voluntarily grouped with the US, such as Puerto Rico: the island became a commonwealth of the United States in 1986
• a formal title of some of the states of the US, especially Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
• the title of the federated Australian states.
• (the Commonwealth) the republican period of government in Britain between the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.

• 2 (the Commonwealth, in full the Commonwealth of Nations) an international association consisting of the UK together with states that were previously part of the British Empire, and dependencies.

• 3 (the commonwealth) archaic the general good.