commune

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kŏm'yo͞on, IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmjuːn/
• (US) enPR: käm'yo͞on, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmjuːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

commune

Wikipedia

commune (countable and uncountable, plural communes)

1. A small community, often rural, whose members share in the ownership of property, and in the division of labour; the members of such a community.
   • 1975, Peter J. Seybolt, editor, The Rustication of Urban Youth in China‎, published 2015, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 148:

     The town of Chu-chou in Hunan Province, carrying out the great directive of Chairman Mao that "educated youths must go to the villages," has put into practice factory-commune links, and under the leadership of cadres, has made a collective settlement of educated youths in commune and brigade farms, forest areas, and tea plantations.

2. A local political division in many European countries and in Chile.
3. (obsolete) The commonalty; the common people.
4. (uncountable, obsolete) Communion; sympathetic conversation between friends.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=Prologue or Rpilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):

     For days of happy commune dead.

5. (historical) A self-governing city or league of citizens.
   • 1997, David Nicholas, The Growth of the Medieval City: From Late Antiquity to the Early Fourteenth Century, →ISBN, page 161:

     In 1117 the commune and archbishop had separate consuls at Milan.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kəmyo͞on', IPA^(key): /kəˈmjuːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

Verb

commune (third-person singular simple present communes, present participle communing, simple past and past participle communed)

1. To converse together with sympathy and confidence; to interchange sentiments or feelings; to take counsel.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     I would commune with you of such things / That want no ear but yours.

2. (intransitive, followed by with) To communicate (with) spiritually; to be together (with); to contemplate or absorb.

   He spent a week in the backcountry, communing with nature.

3. (Christianity, intransitive) To receive the communion.
   • 1681, Gilbert Burnet, “[A Collection of Records, and Original Papers; with Other Instruments Referred to in the Second Part of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England.] Book I.”, in The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. The Second Part, […], London: […] T[homas] H[odgkin] for Richard Chiswell, […], →OCLC, page 207:

     Namely, in these things, in prohibiting that none should commune alone, in making the People whole Communers, or in suffering them to Commune under both kinds […]

Descendants

• → Indonesian: komune

Noun

commune f (plural communes)

1. commune (administrative subdivision)

Adjective

commune

1. feminine singular of commun

Derived terms

• communità

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem).