Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COM-MU'NI-TY, n. [L. communitas; It. comunità; Sp. comunidad; Fr. communauté. See Common.]

1. Properly, common possession or enjoyment; as, a community of goods. It is a confirmation of the original community of all things. – Locke.
2. A society of people having common rights and privileges, or common interests, civil, political or ecclesiastical; or living under the same laws and regulations. This word may signify a commonwealth or state, a body politic, or a particular society or order of men within a state, as a community of monks; and it is often used for the public or people in general, without very definite limits.
3. Commonness; frequency. [Obs.] – Shak.