Community \Com*mu"ni*ty\, n.; pl. Communities. [L. communitas: cf. OF. communit['e]. Cf. Commonalty, and see Common.]

1. Common possession or enjoyment; participation; as, a community of goods.

The original community of all things. --Locke.

An unreserved community of thought and feeling. --W. Irving.

2. A body of people having common rights, privileges, or interests, or living in the same place under the same laws and regulations; as, a community of monks. Hence a number of animals living in a common home or with some apparent association of interests.

Creatures that in communities exist. --Wordsworth.

3. Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body politic; the public, or people in general.

Burdens upon the poorer classes of the community. --Hallam.

Note: In this sense, the term should be used with the definite article; as, the interests of the community.

4. Common character; likeness. [R.]

The essential community of nature between organic growth and inorganic growth. --H. Spencer.

5. Commonness; frequency. [Obs.]

Eyes . . . sick and blunted with community. --Shak.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)