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commune1

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒmjuːn/
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Definition of commune

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)

commune in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of commune in the US English dictionary
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