Cŏm'mon-wēal' or Cŏm'mon-wēalth', n.
n. [See WEAL and WEALTH.]
Sense 1. An established form of government, or civil polity, or, more generally, 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.
☞ 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 good or happiness; and hence, the form of government supposed best to secure the public good.
Sense 2. The whole body of people in a state; the public. Shak.
Sense 3. (Eng. Hist.) The form of government established on the death of Charles I., in 1649, and which existed under Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, ending with the abdication of the latter in 1659.
Synonyms—State; realm; republic.