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. Irwing.
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.
⇒ 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.
© Webster 1913.