Nearby Words

communities

[kuh-myoo-ni-tee] Origin

com·mu·ni·ty

[kuh-myoo-ni-tee]
noun, plural -ties.
1.
a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
2.
a locality inhabited by such a group.
3.
a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually preceded by the): the business community; the community of scholars.
4.
a group of associated nations sharing common interests or a common heritage: the community of Western Europe.
5.
Ecclesiastical. a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.
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6.
Ecology. an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area.
7.
joint possession, enjoyment, liability, etc.: community of property.
8.
similar character; agreement; identity: community of interests.
9.
the community, the public; society: the needs of the community.
COLLAPSE

Origin:
1325–75; < Latin commūnitās, equivalent to commūni(s) common + -tās -ty2; replacing Middle English comunete < Middle French < Latin as above

com·mu·ni·tal, adjective
pro·com·mu·nity, adjective


1. Community, hamlet, village, town, city are terms for groups of people living in somewhat close association, and usually under common rules. Community is a general term, and town is often loosely applied. A commonly accepted set of connotations envisages hamlet as a small group, village as a somewhat larger one, town still larger, and city as very large. Size is, however, not the true basis of differentiation, but properly sets off only hamlet. Incorporation, or the absence of it, and the type of government determine the classification of the others. 8. similarity, likeness.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Communities is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

community
late 14c., from O.Fr. communité, from L. communitatem (nom. communitas) "community, fellowship," from communis "common, public, general, shared by all or many," (see common). L. communitatem "was merely a noun of quality ... meaning 'fellowship, community of relations
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or feelings,' but in med.L. it was, like universitas, used concretely in the sense of 'a body of fellows or fellow-townsmen' " [OED]. An O.E. word for "community" was gemænscipe "community, fellowship, union, common ownership," probably composed from the same PIE roots as communis. Community service as a criminal sentence is recorded from 1972, Amer.Eng. Community college is recorded from 1959.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
community   (kə-my'nĭ-tē)  Pronunciation Key 
A group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment. The organisms in a community affect each other's abundance, distribution, and evolutionary adaptation. Depending on how broadly one views the interaction between organisms, a community can be small and local, as in a pond or tree, or regional or global, as in a biome.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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