Definition of COMMONWEALTH

commonwealth

Plural: commonwealths

Noun

  • the official name of some states in the United States (Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Kentucky) and associated territories (Puerto Rico)
  • a politically organized body of people under a single government
  • 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
  • a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them
  • The well-being of a community.
  • The entirety of a (secular) society, a polity, a state.
  • Republic. Often capitalized, as Commonwealth.

Origin / Etymology

From common (“public”) + wealth (“well-being”).
From c. 1450 as common wele (commonweal). In the form common-wealth (common welthe) from c. 1520, used by Tyndale in the sense "secular society" in particular, for which other authors preferred publike weal.
Also from the 1520s treated as a synonym or loan-translation of res publica (republic) (Rollison 2017:67f).

Synonyms

body politic, country, democracy, land, nation, republic, res publica, state

Scrabble Score: 24

commonwealth: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
commonwealth: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
commonwealth: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 28

commonwealth: valid Words With Friends Word