commonwealth meaning and definition

COMMONWEALTH noun

Definition of commonwealth (noun)

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"
   • synonyms: body politic, country, land, nation, res publica, state
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
   • synonyms: democracy, republic