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, 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] [ant: autocracy]

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,

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. The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth. --Milton. 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. 2. The whole body of people in a state; the public. 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.

COMMONWEALTH, government. ACOMMONWEALTH : 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, 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)