Definition the word community

A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighbourhood) or in virtual space through communication platforms. Durable good relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties also define a sense of community, important to their identity, practice, and roles in social institutions such as family, home, work, government, society, or humanity at large.^[1] Although communities are usually small relative to personal social ties, «community» may also refer to large group affiliations such as national communities, international communities, and virtual communities.^[2]

The English-language word «community» derives from the Old French comuneté (Modern French: communauté), which comes from the Latin communitas «community», «public spirit» (from Latin communis, «common»).^[3]

Human communities may have intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, and risks in common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.^[4]

Perspectives of various disciplines[edit]

Archaeology[edit]

Archaeological studies of social communities use the term «community» in two ways, paralleling usage in other areas. The first is an informal definition of community as a place where people used to live. In this sense it is synonymous with the concept of an ancient settlement—whether a hamlet, village, town, or city. The second meaning resembles the usage of the term in other social sciences: a community is a group of people living near one another who interact socially. Social interaction on a small scale can be difficult to identify with archaeological data. Most reconstructions of social communities by archaeologists rely on the principle that social interaction in the past was conditioned by physical distance. Therefore, a small village settlement likely constituted a social community and spatial subdivisions of cities and other large settlements may have formed communities. Archaeologists typically use similarities in material culture—from house types to styles of pottery—to reconstruct communities in the past. This classification method relies on the assumption that people or households will share more similarities in the types and styles of their material goods with other members of a social community than they will with outsiders.^[5]

Sociology[edit]

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Ecology[edit]

In ecology, a community is an assemblage of populations—potentially of different species—interacting with one another. Community ecology is the branch of ecology that studies interactions between and among species. It considers how such interactions, along with interactions between species and the abiotic environment, affect social structure and species richness, diversity and patterns of abundance. Species interact in three ways: competition, predation and mutualism:

• Competition typically results in a double negative—that is both species lose in the interaction.
• Predation involves a win/lose situation, with one species winning.
• Mutualism sees both species co-operating in some way, with both winning.

The two main types of ecological communities are major communities, which are self-sustaining and self-regulating (such as a forest or a lake), and minor communities, which rely on other communities (like fungi decomposing a log) and are the building blocks of major communities.

Semantics[edit]

The concept of «community» often has a positive semantic connotation, exploited rhetorically by populist politicians and by advertisers^[6]
to promote feelings and associations of mutual well-being, happiness and togetherness^[7]—veering towards an almost-achievable utopian community.

In contrast, the epidemiological term «community transmission» can have negative implications,^[8] and instead of a «criminal community»^[9] one often speaks of a «criminal underworld» or of the «criminal fraternity».

Key concepts[edit]

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft[edit]

In Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887), German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies described two types of human association: Gemeinschaft (usually translated as «community») and Gesellschaft («society» or «association»). Tönnies proposed the Gemeinschaft–Gesellschaft dichotomy as a way to think about social ties. No group is exclusively one or the other. Gemeinschaft stress personal social interactions, and the roles, values, and beliefs based on such interactions. Gesellschaft stress indirect interactions, impersonal roles, formal values, and beliefs based on such interactions.^[10]

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In a seminal 1986 study, McMillan and Chavis^[11] identify four elements of «sense of community»:

1. membership: feeling of belonging or of sharing a sense of personal relatedness,
2. influence: mattering, making a difference to a group and of the group mattering to its members
3. reinforcement: integration and fulfillment of needs,
4. shared emotional connection.

A «sense of community index» (SCI) was developed by Chavis and colleagues, and revised and adapted by others. Although originally designed to assess sense of community in neighborhoods, the index has been adapted for use in schools, the workplace, and a variety of types of communities.^[12]

Studies conducted by the APPA^[who?] indicate that young adults who feel a sense of belonging in a community, particularly small communities, develop fewer psychiatric and depressive disorders than those who do not have the feeling of love and belonging.^[13]

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The process of learning to adopt the behavior patterns of the community is called socialization. The most fertile time of socialization is usually the early stages of life, during which individuals develop the skills and knowledge and learn the roles necessary to function within their culture and social environment. For some psychologists, especially those in the psychodynamic tradition, the most important period of socialization is between the ages of one and ten. But socialization also includes adults moving into a significantly different environment where they must learn a new set of behaviors.^[15]

Socialization is influenced primarily by the family, through which children first learn community norms. Other important influences include schools, peer groups, people, mass media, the workplace, and government. The degree to which the norms of a particular society or community are adopted determines one’s willingness to engage with others. The norms of tolerance, reciprocity, and trust are important «habits of the heart», as de Tocqueville put it, in an individual’s involvement in community.

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Community development is often linked with community work or community planning, and may involve stakeholders, foundations, governments, or contracted entities including non-government organisations (NGOs), universities or government agencies to progress the social well-being of local, regional and, sometimes, national communities. More grassroots efforts, called community building or community organizing, seek to empower individuals and groups of people by providing them with the skills they need to effect change in their own communities.^[17] These skills often assist in building political power through the formation of large social groups working for a common agenda. Community development practitioners must understand both how to work with individuals and how to affect communities’ positions within the context of larger social institutions. Public administrators, in contrast, need to understand community development in the context of rural and urban development, housing and economic development, and community, organizational and business development.

Formal accredited programs conducted by universities, as part of degree granting institutions, are often used to build a knowledge base to drive curricula in public administration, sociology and community studies. The General Social Survey from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and the Saguaro Seminar at the Harvard Kennedy School are examples of national community development in the United States. The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York State offers core courses in community and economic development, and in areas ranging from non-profit development to US budgeting (federal to local, community funds). In the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has led in providing extensive research in the field through its Community Development Journal,^[18] used worldwide by sociologists and community development practitioners.

At the intersection between community development and community building are a number of programs and organizations with community development tools. One example of this is the program of the Asset Based Community Development Institute of Northwestern University. The institute makes available downloadable tools^[19] to assess community assets and make connections between non-profit groups and other organizations that can help in community building. The Institute focuses on helping communities develop by «mobilizing neighborhood assets» – building from the inside out rather than the outside in.^[20] In the disability field, community building was prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s with roots in John McKnight’s approaches.^[21][22]

Community building and organizing[edit]

In The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace (1987) Scott Peck argues that the almost accidental sense of community that exists at times of crisis can be consciously built. Peck believes that conscious community building is a process of deliberate design based on the knowledge and application of certain rules.^[23] He states that this process goes through four stages:^[24]

1. Pseudocommunity: When people first come together, they try to be «nice» and present what they feel are their most personable and friendly characteristics.
2. Chaos: People move beyond the inauthenticity of pseudo-community and feel safe enough to present their «shadow» selves.
3. Emptiness: Moves beyond the attempts to fix, heal and convert of the chaos stage, when all people become capable of acknowledging their own woundedness and brokenness, common to human beings.
4. True community: Deep respect and true listening for the needs of the other people in this community.

In 1991, Peck remarked that building a sense of community is easy but maintaining this sense of community is difficult in the modern world.^[25] An interview with M. Scott Peck by Alan Atkisson. In Context #29, p. 26.
The three basic types of community organizing are grassroots organizing, coalition building, and «institution-based community organizing», (also called «broad-based community organizing», an example of which is faith-based community organizing, or Congregation-based Community Organizing).^[26]

Community building can use a wide variety of practices, ranging from simple events (e.g., potlucks, small book clubs) to larger-scale efforts (e.g., mass festivals, construction projects that involve local participants rather than outside contractors).

Community building that is geared toward citizen action is usually termed «community organizing».^[27] In these cases, organized community groups seek accountability from elected officials and increased direct representation within decision-making bodies. Where good-faith negotiations fail, these constituency-led organizations seek to pressure the decision-makers through a variety of means, including picketing, boycotting, sit-ins, petitioning, and electoral politics.

Community organizing can focus on more than just resolving specific issues. Organizing often means building a widely accessible power structure, often with the end goal of distributing power equally throughout the community. Community organizers generally seek to build groups that are open and democratic in governance. Such groups facilitate and encourage consensus decision-making with a focus on the general health of the community rather than a specific interest group.

If communities are developed based on something they share in common, whether location or values, then one challenge for developing communities is how to incorporate individuality and differences. Rebekah Nathan suggests^{[according to whom?]} in her book, My Freshman Year, we are drawn to developing communities totally based on sameness, despite stated commitments to diversity, such as those found on university websites.

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A number of ways to categorize types of community have been proposed. One such breakdown is as follows:

1. Location-based Communities: range from the local neighbourhood, suburb, village, town or city, region, nation or even the planet as a whole. These are also called communities of place.
2. Identity-based Communities: range from the local clique, sub-culture, ethnic group, religious, multicultural or pluralistic civilisation, or the global community cultures of today. They may be included as communities of need or identity, such as disabled persons, or frail aged people.
3. Organizationally-based Communities: range from communities organized informally around family or network-based guilds and associations to more formal incorporated associations, political decision-making structures, economic enterprises, or professional associations at a small, national or international scale.
4. Intentional Communities: a mix of all three previous types, these are highly cohesive residential communities with a common social or spiritual purpose, ranging from monasteries and ashrams to modern ecovillages and housing cooperatives.

The usual categorizations of community relations have a number of problems:^[28] (1) they tend to give the impression that a particular community can be defined as just this kind or another; (2) they tend to conflate modern and customary community relations; (3) they tend to take sociological categories such as ethnicity or race as given, forgetting that different ethnically defined persons live in different kinds of communities—grounded, interest-based, diasporic, etc.^[29]

In response to these problems, Paul James and his colleagues have developed a taxonomy that maps community relations, and recognizes that actual communities can be characterized by different kinds of relations at the same time:^[30]

1. Grounded community relations. This involves enduring attachment to particular places and particular people. It is the dominant form taken by customary and tribal communities. In these kinds of communities, the land is fundamental to identity.
2. Life-style community relations. This involves giving primacy to communities coming together around particular chosen ways of life, such as morally charged or interest-based relations or just living or working in the same location. Hence the following sub-forms:
   1. community-life as morally bounded, a form taken by many traditional faith-based communities.
   2. community-life as interest-based, including sporting, leisure-based and business communities which come together for regular moments of engagement.
   3. community-life as proximately-related, where neighbourhood or commonality of association forms a community of convenience, or a community of place (see below).
3. Projected community relations. This is where a community is self-consciously treated as an entity to be projected and re-created. It can be projected as through thin advertising slogan, for example gated community, or can take the form of ongoing associations of people who seek political integration, communities of practice^[31] based on professional projects, associative communities which seek to enhance and support individual creativity, autonomy and mutuality. A nation is one of the largest forms of projected or imagined community.

In these terms, communities can be nested and/or intersecting; one community can contain another—for example a location-based community may contain a number of ethnic communities.^[32] Both lists above can used in a cross-cutting matrix in relation to each other.

Internet communities[edit]

In general, virtual communities value knowledge and information as currency or social resource.^{[33][34][35][36]} What differentiates virtual communities from their physical counterparts is the extent and impact of «weak ties», which are the relationships acquaintances or strangers form to acquire information through online networks.^[37] Relationships among members in a virtual community tend to focus on information exchange about specific topics.^[38][39] A survey conducted by Pew Internet and The American Life Project in 2001 found those involved in entertainment, professional, and sports virtual-groups focused their activities on obtaining information.^[40]

An epidemic of bullying and harassment has arisen from the exchange of information between strangers, especially among teenagers,^[41] in virtual communities. Despite attempts to implement anti-bullying policies, Sheri Bauman, professor of counselling at the University of Arizona, claims the «most effective strategies to prevent bullying» may cost companies revenue.^[42]

Virtual Internet-mediated communities can interact with offline real-life activity, potentially forming strong and tight-knit groups such as QAnon.^[43]

See also[edit]

• Circles of Sustainability
• Communitarianism
• Community theatre
• Engaged theory
• Outline of community
• Wikipedia community

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Barzilai, Gad. 2003. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Beck, U. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage: 2000. What is globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Chavis, D.M., Hogge, J.H., McMillan, D.W., & Wandersman, A. 1986. «Sense of community through Brunswick’s lens: A first look.» Journal of Community Psychology, 14(1), 24–40.
• Chipuer, H.M., & Pretty, G.M.H. (1999). A review of the Sense of Community Index: Current uses, factor structure, reliability, and further development. Journal of Community Psychology, 27(6), 643–58.
• Christensen, K., et al. (2003). Encyclopedia of Community. 4 volumes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Cohen, A. P. 1985. The Symbolic Construction of Community. Routledge: New York.
• Durkheim, Émile. 1950 [1895] The Rules of Sociological Method. Translated by S.A. Solovay and J.H. Mueller. New York: The Free Press.
• Cox, F., J. Erlich, J. Rothman, and J. Tropman. 1970. Strategies of Community Organization: A Book of Readings. Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock Publishers.
• Effland, R. 1998. The Cultural Evolution of Civilizations Mesa Community College.
• Giddens, A. 1999. «Risk and Responsibility» Modern Law Review 62(1): 1–10.
• James, Paul (1996). Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community. London: Sage Publications.
• Lenski, G. 1974. Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
• Long, D.A., & Perkins, D.D. (2003). Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sense of Community Index and Development of a Brief SCI. Journal of Community Psychology, 31, 279–96.
• Lyall, Scott, ed. (2016). Community in Modern Scottish Literature. Brill | Rodopi: Leiden | Boston.
• Nancy, Jean-Luc. La Communauté désœuvrée – philosophical questioning of the concept of community and the possibility of encountering a non-subjective concept of it
• Muegge, Steven (2013). «Platforms, communities and business ecosystems: Lessons learned about entrepreneurship in an interconnected world». Technology Innovation Management Review. 3 (February): 5–15. doi:10.22215/timreview/655.
• Newman, D. 2005. Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, Chapter 5. «Building Identity: Socialization» Archived 2012-01-06 at the Wayback Machine Pine Forge Press. Retrieved: 2006-08-05.
• Putnam, R.D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster
• Sarason, S.B. 1974. The psychological sense of community: Prospects for a community psychology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1986. «Commentary: The emergence of a conceptual center.» Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 405–07.
• Smith, M.K. 2001. Community. Encyclopedia of informal education. Last updated: January 28, 2005. Retrieved: 2006-07-15.

Last Updated:
9 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Late Middle English communite,^[1] borrowed from Old French communité, comunité, comunete (modern French communauté), from Classical Latin commūnitās (“community; public spirit”),^[2] from commūnis (“common, ordinary; of or for the community, public”) + -itās (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts (“suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being”)). Commūnis is derived from con- (“prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several objects”) (from cum (“with”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“along, at, next to, with”)) + mūnus (“employment, office, service; burden, duty, obligation”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange”)). Ostensibly equivalent to commune +‎ -ity. Doublet of communitas.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈmjuː.nɪ.ti/
• (General American, Canada) enPR: kə-myo͞oʹnə-ti, IPA^(key): /k(ə)ˈmju.nə.ti/, [k(ə)ˈmju.nə.ɾi]
• Hyphenation: com‧mun‧i‧ty

Noun[edit]

community (countable and uncountable, plural communities)

1. (countable) A group sharing common characteristics, such as the same language, law, religion, or tradition.

   • 1586, Giraldus Cambrensis [i.e., Gerald of Wales]; Iohn Hooker alias Vowell [i.e., John Hooker], transl., “The Irish Historie Composed and Written by Giraldus Cambrensis, [… ]”, in The Second Volume of Chronicles: […] , [s.l.: s.n.], →OCLC:

     [W]e are not borne to our ſelues alone, but the prince, the countrie, the parents, freends, wiues, children and familie, euerie of them doo claime an intereſt in vs, and to euerie of them we muſt be beneficiall: otherwiſe we doo degenerate from that communitie and ſocietie, which by ſuch offices by vs is to be conſtrued, & doo become moſt vnprofitable: […]

   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, being a Portion of The Recluse; a Poem, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, →OCLC, book the fourth (Despondency Corrected), page 161:

     Nor wanting here, to entertain the thought, / Creatures, that in communities exist, / Less, at might seem, for general guardianship / Or through dependance upon mutual aid, / Than by participation of delight / And a strict love of fellowship, combined.

   • 1827, Henry Hallam, “On the English Constitution from Henry VII to Mary”, in The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII to the Death of George II, volume I, Paris: Printed for L. Baudry, at the English, Italian, German and Spanish Library, No. 9, rue du Coq-Saint-Honoré; Lefèvre, bookseller, No. 8, rue de l’Éperon, →OCLC, page 17:

     Henry VII obtained from his first parliament a grant of tonnage and poundage during life, according to several precedents of former reigns. But when general subsidies were granted, the same people […] twice broke out into dangerous rebellions; and as these, however arising from such immediate discontent, were yet connected a good deal with the opinion of Henry’s usurpation, and the claims of a pretender, it was a necessary policy to avoid too frequent imposition of burdens upon the poorer classes of the community.

   • 1891 March 15, Oscar Wilde, “The Soul of Man under Socialism”, in Oscar Wilde; William Morris; W[illiam] C[harles] Owen, The Soul of Man under Socialism, The Socialist Ideal—Art and The Coming Solidarity (The Humboldt Library of Science; no. 147), New York, N.Y.: The Humboldt Publishing Company, 28 Lafayette Place, →OCLC, pages 14–15:

     As one reads history—not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time—one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment, than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

   • 2005, Craig Dykstra, “Growing in Faith”, in Growing in the Life of Faith: Education and Christian Practices, 2nd edition, Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, →ISBN, page 40:

     The process of coming to faith and growing in the life of faith is fundamentally a process of participation. […] The Presbyterian Confession of 1967 says that «the new life takes shape in a community in which [human beings] know that God loves and accepts them in spite of what they are.» In words that capture an older language, God uses the community of faith as «means of grace.»

   • 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 188, number 26, archived from the original on 16 November 2016, page 19:

     It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today – with America standing out in the forefront and the UK not far behind.

2. (countable) A residential or religious collective; a commune.

   • 1999, “Fourteenth Century: Before and After”, in Therese Boos Dykeman, editor, The Neglected Canon: Nine Women Philosophers: First to the Twentieth Century, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →ISBN, page 73:

     The Beguines, an uncloistered religiously inspired woman’s movement began about the year 1210 in Liége, Belgium. Generally the Beguines lived in community or in small cottages behind a wall. At times threatened as heretics, they were finally disbanded by the Reformation.

3. (countable, ecology) A group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other.

   • 1949, G[eorge] E[velyn] Hutchinson; E[dward] S[mith] Deevey, Jr., “Ecological Studies on Populations”, in George S. Avery, Jr., editor, Survey of Biological Progress, volume I, New York, N.Y.: Academic Press, page 325:

     Synecology has for the objects of its study, not individual organisms but biological communities, which are groups of organisms living in a given space, the properties of which space select a certain assemblage of organisms of definite autecological characteristics. Such communities are moreover not merely collections of organisms of restricted autecology, but tend to become organized by the biotic relationships that exist beteen the various individuals comprising the community.

4. (countable, Internet) A group of people interacting by electronic means for educational, professional, social, or other purposes; a virtual community.

   • 2015, Sandy Baldwin, “I Read My Spam”, in The Internet Unconscious: On the Subject of Electronic Literature (International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics; 9), New York, N.Y.; London: Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, section VI, page 89:

     Spam texts are encoded but no decryption is possible. There is no plaintext message. I find them wonderful, and read them as poetics, as odd fragments generative of narrtives and scenography. I find the process of their production wonderful as well. The texts are written to elude community standards and means of censorship, and at the same time to enter and impose themselves into the standards and means for the community to read itself.

   • 2015, Aaron M. Duncan, “Shifting the Scene to Cyberspace: Internet Poker and the Rise of Tom Dwan”, in Gambling with the Myth of the American Dream (Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society), New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN:

     Online gaming communities develop their own language, history, routines, and relationships. The online poker community is no different, developing its own culture distinct from the traditional poker community. One asp[ect that differentiates internet poker from other online gaming communities is the presence of money, creating what [Edward] Castronova et al. (2009) refer to as a virtual economic system complete with its own rules and forces.

5. (uncountable) The condition of having certain attitudes and interests in common.

   • 2006, James G[eorge] Samra, “The Role of the Local Community in the Maturation Process”, in Being Conformed to Christ in Community: A Study of Maturity, Maturation and the Local Church in the Undisputed Pauline Epistles (Library of New Testament Studies; 320), paperback edition, London; New York, N.Y.: T&T Clark, published 2008, →ISBN, section 6.1 (Introduction), page 133:

     We hope to demonstrate that Paul understood the local community to be the sphere in which and the means through which the five components of the maturation process were facilitated, thus concluding that Paul expected believers to be confirmed to Christ in community.

   • 2018, Bronwyn T. Williams, “A Sense of Where You Are: Literacy, Place, and Mobility”, in Literacy Practices and Perceptions of Agency: Composing Identities, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 128:

     Writing groups and community writing spaces can provide that vitally important space for writing as well as potential benefits of support and accountability if people have the chance to talk about writing. Even if all that happens, however, is that people have a space to write in community with each other, the result is usually that writing becomes contagious.

6. (countable, obsolete) Common enjoyment or possession; participation.

   a community of goods

   • 1689, [John Locke], “Of Adam’s Title to Sovereignty by Donation, Gen[esis] 1.28”, in Two Treatises of Government: In the Former, the False Principles, and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and His Followers, are Detected and Overthrown. The Latter is an Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government, London: Printed for Awnsham Churchill, at the Black Swan in Ave-Mary-Lane, by Amen-Corner, published 1690, →OCLC; republished London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row, 1698, →OCLC, page 39:

     To conclude, this Text is ſo far from proving Adam Sole Proprietor, that on the contrary, it is a Confirmation of the Original Community of all Things amongſt the Sons of Men, which appearing from this Donation of God, as well as other places of Scripture; the Sovraignty of Adam, built upon his Private Dominion, muſt fall, not having any Foundation to ſupport it.

   • 1819 October 9, [Washington Irving], “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. No. III. The Wife.”, in The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc., volume III, number 142, London: Printed by William Pople, No. 67, Chancery Lane; published for the proprietors, at the Literary Gazette office, Strand; sold also by Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh; John Cumming, Dublin; and all other booksellers, newsmen, &c., →OCLC, page 649, column 1:

     Besides, you are depriving yourself of the comforts of her sympathy; and not merely that, but also endangering the only bond that can keep hearts together—an unreserved community of thought and feeling.

7. (uncountable, obsolete) Common character; likeness.

   • 1797, John Wilde, Sequel to an Address to the Lately Formed Society of the Friends of the People, Edinburgh: Printed for Peter Hill; and T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, London, →OCLC, page 1:

     We are now in the ninth year of the anarchy of France. […] A diſpoſition to peace has been diſplayed, without conſideration of the royal family of France. The natural horror at the effuſion of blood cannot be too ſtrong, and might of itſelf perſuade us to any ſort of peace; but it is a great queſtion, whether in this we ſhould loſe our natural horror at crime. Peace with France cannot be friendſhip with France. There can be no community between us and them, unleſs by allying ourſelves with murder, and ſanctioning and ſharing in the pillage of thieves.

   • 1864, Herbert Spencer, “Growth”, in The Principles of Biology (A System of Synthetic Philosophy; II), volume I, London; Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 14, Henrietta Steet, Covent Garden, London; and 20, South Frederick Street, Edinburgh, →OCLC, part II (The Inductions of Biology), § 43, pages 107–108:

     The essential community of nature between organic growth and inorganic growth, is, however, most clearly seen on observing that they both result in the same way. The segregation of different kinds of detritus from each other, as well as from the water carrying them, and their aggregation into distinct strata, is but an instance of a universl tendency towards the union of like units and the parting of unlike units […].

8. (uncountable, obsolete) Commonness; frequency.

   • c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     So when he had occaſion to be ſeene, / He was but as the Cuckoe is in Iune, / Heard, not regarded: Seene, but with ſuch eie / As ſicke and blunted with communitie, / Affoord no extraordinary gaze.

9. (Wales, countable) A local area within a county or county borough which is the lowest tier of local government, usually represented by a community council or town council, which is generally equivalent to a civil parish in England.

Alternative forms[edit]

• communitie (obsolete)

Antonyms[edit]

• anticommunity
• noncommunity

Hyponyms[edit]

• subcommunity

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

• community at OneLook Dictionary Search
• community in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• «community» in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 75.
• “community”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Further reading[edit]

1	0   0 Refers to all the populations of interacting species found in a specific area or region at a certain time.

2	0   0 community All the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction.

3	0   0 community Definition Group of people sharing common characteristics or interests. A community can be either a geographically based group of persons or a group with shared interests or common demographic composi [..]

4	0   0 community A group of people who identify with each other, have common interests, or are viewed as forming a distinct segment of society. The word community can also mean a society as a whole. A Human Rights Com [..]

5	0   0 community Communities are customizable public or private spaces for employees, end-customers, and partners to collaborate on best practices and business processes.

6	0   0 community A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government, or a political subdivision of a state or other authority that has zoning and building code jurisdiction over a particular area.

7	0   0 community 1[singular] all the people who live in a particular area, country, etc. when talked about as a group The local community was shocked by the murders. health workers based in the community (= working wi [..]

8	0   0 community late 14c., from Old French comunité «community, commonness, everybody» (Modern French communauté), from Latin communitatem (nominative communitas) «community, society, fellowship, fri [..]

9	0   0 community A constantly changing group of people collaborating and sharing their ideas over an electronic network (e.g., the Internet). Communities optimize their collective power by affiliation around a common [..]

10	0   0 community A society where peoples relations with each other are direct and personal and where a complex web of ties link people in mutual bonds of emotion and obligation. In the social sciences, especially soci [..]

11	0   0 community group of organisms or a social group interacting in a specific region under similar environmental conditions.

12	0   0 community social group whose members share common heritage, interests, or culture.

13	0   0 community Public stakeholders typically associated with a project. [D02488]

14	0   0 community In SNMP, a logical group of managed devices and NMSs in the same administrative domain.

15	0   0 community Eskaton uses the word "Community" to describe each of its full spectrum of living environments — including independent living, assisted living, memory care, rehabilitation and skill [..]

16	0   0 community a group of people living in a particular local area; "the team is drawn from all parts of the community" common ownership; "they shared a community of possession [..]

17	0   0 community A community may be based around a place, a cultural tradition, or commonly held interests or experiences.

18	0   0 community A group of people who share a common sense of identity and interact with one another on a sustained basis.

19	0   0 community Lower case.

20	0   0 community An assemblage of organisms that are associated in a common environment and interact with each other in a self-sustaining and self-regulating relation. companion cell

21	0   0 community tsiber

22	0   0 community eyde

23	0   0 community kibets (kibutsim)

24	0   0 community kehile

25	0   0 community pl: -ties 1 : the people who live in a particular place or region and usually are linked by some common interests 2 a : the mass of community property owned by a husband and wife [a spouse may …

26	0   0 community Refers to organisms living within a defined habitat. Organisms within a freshwater marsh are related in many ways, one of which is being part of a food web. Within many communities different bird spec [..]

27	0   0 community All the species within a particular area

28	0   0 community Group of organisms living and interacting together in the same environment.

29	0   0 community all the populations of different species living and interacting together in a distinct area

30	0   0 community Two or more populations living together and sharing a habitat.

31	0   0 community Strategic Direction

32	0   0 community An association of different species living together at the same time in a defined habitat with some degree of mutual dependence. It can be of various sizes from lake sediments to rainforests (Compare [..]

33	0   0 community High School of Vermont (CHSVT)

34	0   0 community A much-used term with little specific meaning but usually refers to a social group characterized by dense networks of social interaction reflecting a common set of cultural values. Often, but not nece [..]

35	0   0 community

36	0   0 community the 28 member states of the European Union

37	0   0 community A group of various populations in a given area

38	0   0 community Contact Us

39	0   0 community What you get when you cross a Pirates’ Guild with a Pacifists’ Convention. Between them, states like Libya on the one hand and Sweden on the other are perfectly placed to tell Israel how to [..]

40	0   0 community A collection of people in a geographical area; may also include the idea that the collection has a social structure and a sense of community spirit or belonging.

41	0   0 community Any group of people sharing a common identity based on family, occupation, region, religion, culture, gender, age, interest, or avocation; where you live, go to school, work, worship, have family; peo [..]

42	0   0 community The physical area where we live, comprised of places where we know and interact with real people.

43	0   0 community Community refers to the group of people or a society living together in a specific local area or a group of people with similar rights or interests. Community means neighborhood or locality.

44	0   0 community The new term for WebRing, sometimes called a WebRing community, all the websites on one ring.

45	0   0 community (n) a group of people living in a particular local area(n) common ownership(n) a group of nations having common interests(n) agreement as to goals(n) a district where people live; occupied primar [..]

46	0   0 community all of the organisms that interact, both directly and indirectly, within an ecosystem.

47	0   0 community A group of living things that are generally found together within an ecosystem.

48	0   0 community the people with common interests living in a particular area

49	0   0 community Collection of animal and plant species present in a given location; generally viewed as also encompassing the interactions between different species.

50	0   0 community Service operated primarily within the boundaries of a community that is not considered a municipality, county, independent city or parish.

51	0   0 community «Social relationships that individuals have based on group consensus, shared norms and values, common goals, and feelings of identification, belonging and trust» (Small & Supple, 2001, p. 3).

52	0   0 community A multidimensional concept that includes a feeling of belonging, the sense that the individual and the group matter to each other, the feeling that members’ needs will be met through group resources…

53	0   0 community A group of people who live in a common territory, have a common history and shared values, participate together in various activities, and have a high degree of solidarity» (p.14 Phillips 1993).

54	0   0 community a complex term referring to any social group which shares one or more characteristics such as locality, culture, history, religion, occupation, interests, and which is perceived, or perceives itself, [..]

55	0   0 community A community may be a neighborhood and places around school; local residents; and/or local groups based in neighborhoods.

56	0   0 community The Community is a socially interactive forum where members can recommend content, leave helpful comments, and follow other community members.

57	0   0 community Populations of plants and animals that live and interact with one another at the same site (e.g. sand beach, oak forest).

58	0   0 community several people associated by free-will choice.

59	0   0 community A community on the Internet is a virtual group of Internet users. Usually the members have interests in common, communicate via the Internet, and make their knowledge available for use in the community.

60	0   0 community All of the people living in a specific locality or members of a group that share a particular interest.

61	0   0 community includes individuals (the public), community organisations, schools, advocacy organisations and peak bodies.

62	0   0 community In ecology, an assemblage of populations of different species within a specified location in space and time. Sometimes, a particular subgrouping may be specified, such as the fish community in a lake [..]

63	0   0 community In ecology, an assemblage of populations of different species within a specified location in space and time. Sometimes, a particular subgrouping may be specified, such as the fish community in a la [..]

64	0   0 community A group of interacting organisms living together in a given place.

65	0   0 community is a group of organisms living in a common environment and interdependent.

66	0   0 community An association of living things, plant and animal, each occupying a certain position or ecological niche, inhabiting a common environment and interacting with each other.

67	0   0 community The spectrum of different living organisms inhabiting a particular region, habitat, or biotope.

68	0   0 community Psychotherapeutic technique which emphasizes socioenvironmental and interpersonal influences in the resocialization and Rehabilitation of the Patient. The setting is usually a Hospital Unit or ward in [..]

69	0   0 community A group of organisms occurring in a particular environment, presumably interacting with each other and with the environment, and identifiable by means of ecological survey from other groups (from Mill [..]

70

0   0 community A political entity that has the authority to adopt and enforce floodplain ordinances for the area under its jurisdiction. In most cases, a community is an incorporated city, town, township, borough, village, or an unincorporated area of a county or parish. However, some states have statutory authorities that vary from this description.

71	0   0 community An integrated group of species inhabiting a given area. The organisms within a community influence one another’s distribution, abundance and evolution.

72	0   0 community A group of organisms occurring together.

73	0   0 community The plants and animals that interact in a habitat.

74	0   0 community A group of various populations in a given area

75	0   0 community «Community» means a centralized area or locality in which a body of inhabitants is gathered in one group having common residential, social or business interests. The term does not necessaril [..]

76	0   0 community   A city, town, district, neighborhood, or other commonly recognized geographical, social, or political area.

77	0   0 community A city, town, district, neighborhood, or other commonly recognized geographical, social, or political area.

78	0   0 community The term community is used to identify any grouping of personal or organizational entities, at different levels of formal organization, that are considering or undertaking implementation of DDI. Examp [..]

79	0   0 community A group of ecologically related populations of various species that occur in a particular geographic area at a particular time.

80	0   0 community A community is a unified body of individuals, unified by interests, location, occupation, common history, or political and economic concerns.

81	0   0 community New to League?

82	0   0 community The territory of each Member State of the Community to which the Treaty establishing the European Community is applicable.

83

0   0 community A loosely defined term that could mean a municipality, near municipality or unorganized settlement. Some data which is geographically created by grouping postal codes do not match municipal boundaries exactly; e.g., Community Fact Sheets draw on a variety of sources, some which define boundaries exactly and some which do not.

84	0   0 community The EPA’s corporate plan uses the term ‘community’ in its broadest sense to include all levels of Government, industry, special interest groups and the general public.

85	0   0 community In ecology, the species that interact in a common area.

86	0   0 community GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

87	0   0 community A group of people who share a concern, geographic area or population characteristics (Kim-Ju et al., 2008). Together to Live focuses on communities who share a concern for youth suicide.

88	0   0 community Any naturally occurìng group of organisms that occupy a common enviroment. The term is a general one, covering groups of various sizes. A grouping of interacting populations in a particular habitat.

89	0   0 community   an assemblage of plants and animals that exist together to make up a particular type of ecosystem.

90	0   0 community Used in many ways. Usually refers to those living within a small, loosely defined geographical area. Yet any group of individuals who share interests may also be described as a community. Also sometim [..]

91	0   0 community A community is a group of people understood as having a certain identity due to the sharing of common interests or to a shared proximity. A community may be identified as a group of people living in t [..]

92	0   0 community An assembly of organisms that tend to occur together under similar environmental conditions; usually considered to be on a smaller spatial scale than an ecosystem.

93	0   0 community a group of people associated by free-will choice.

94	0   0 community The district or locality in which people live. A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government. A social group having common interests.

95	0   0 community The Latin term communitas was frequently used in late medieval England to characterize (among other associations) the residents of a town as a group, in a way that implied common action, common obliga [..]

96	0   0 community A self-organized network of people with common agenda, cause, or interest, who collaborate by sharing ideas, information, and other resources.

97	0   0 community In ecology, this refers to populations of various species that are co-occurring at the same time and place.

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