commonwealth

5 definitions found

commonwealth - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Commonwealth \Com"mon*wealth`\ (?; 277), n. [Common + wealth
     well-being.]
     1. A state; a body politic consisting of a certain number of
        men, united, by compact or tacit agreement, under one form
        of government and system of laws.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary
              commonwealth.                         --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: This term is applied to governments which are
           considered as free or popular, but rarely, or
           improperly, to an absolute government. The word
           signifies, strictly, the common well-being or
           happiness; and hence, a form of government in which the
           general welfare is regarded rather than the welfare of
           any class.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The whole body of people in a state; the public.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Eng. Hist.) Specifically, the form of government
        established on the death of Charles I., in 1649, which
        existed under Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, ending
        with the abdication of the latter in 1659.
  
     Syn: State; realm; republic.
          [1913 Webster]

commonwealth - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  commonwealth
      n 1: the official name of some states in the United States
           (Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Kentucky)
           and associated territories (Puerto Rico)
      2: a politically organized body of people under a single
         government; "the state has elected a new president"; "African
         nations"; "students who had come to the nation's capitol";
         "the country's largest manufacturer"; "an industrialized
         land" [syn: state, nation, country, land,
         commonwealth, res publica, body politic]
      3: a world organization of autonomous states that are united in
         allegiance to a central power but are not subordinate to it
         or to one another
      4: a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body
         of citizens who can elect people to represent them [syn:
         democracy, republic, commonwealth]

commonwealth - U.S. Gazetteer (1990) :

  Commonwealth, VA (CDP, FIPS 18792)
    Location: 38.07462 N, 78.48746 W
    Population (1990): 5538 (2584 housing units)
    Area: 3.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)

commonwealth - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  COMMONWEALTH, government. A commonwealth is properly a free state, or 
  republic, having a popular or representative government. The term has been, 
  applied to the government of Great Britain. It is not applicable to absolute 
  governments. The states composing the United States are, properly, so many 
  commonwealths. 
       2. It is a settled principle, that no sovereign power is amenable to 
  answer suits, either in its own courts or in those of a foreign country, 
  unless by its own consent. 4 Yeates, 494. 
  
  

commonwealth - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  165 Moby Thesaurus words for "commonwealth":
     Everyman, John Doe, Public, absolute monarchy, ally, archduchy,
     archdukedom, aristocracy, ashram, autarchy, autocracy, autonomy,
     body, body politic, buffer state, captive nation, caste,
     chieftaincy, chieftainry, citizenry, city-state, clan, class,
     coalition government, colonialism, colony, common man, commonweal,
     commune, community, community at large, constituency,
     constitutional government, constitutional monarchy, country,
     county, cultural community, democracy, dictatorship, domain,
     dominion, dominion rule, duarchy, duchy, dukedom, duumvirate,
     dwellers, dyarchy, earldom, economic class, empery, empire,
     endogamous group, estate, everybody, everyman, everyone,
     everywoman, extended family, family, federal government,
     federation, feudal system, folk, folks, free city, garrison state,
     general public, gens, gentry, gerontocracy, grand duchy, habitancy,
     heteronomy, hierarchy, hierocracy, home rule, inhabitants, kingdom,
     kinship group, land, limited monarchy, linguistic community,
     mandant, mandate, mandated territory, mandatee, mandatory,
     martial law, men, meritocracy, militarism, military government,
     mob rule, mobocracy, moiety, monarchy, nation, nationality,
     neocolonialism, nuclear family, ochlocracy, oligarchy, order,
     pantisocracy, patriarchate, patriarchy, people, people at large,
     people in general, persons, phratria, phratry, phyle, police state,
     polis, polity, populace, population, possession, power,
     principality, principate, protectorate, province, public,
     puppet government, puppet regime, pure democracy, realm, regency,
     representative democracy, representative government, republic,
     satellite, self-determination, self-government, seneschalty,
     settlement, social class, social democracy, society,
     sovereign nation, speech community, state, stratocracy, subcaste,
     sultanate, superpower, technocracy, territory, thearchy, theocracy,
     toparchia, toparchy, totalitarian government, totalitarian regime,
     totem, triarchy, triumvirate, tyranny, welfare state, whole people,
     world, you and me