common

1 adjective

1 A LOT/LARGE AMOUNT existing in large numbers or happening often and in many places: Heart disease is one of the commonest causes of death.

(+ among): Bad dreams are fairly common among children. | it is common for sth to happen: It's very common for new fathers to feel jealous of the baby. | common belief/assumption/practice etc: It's a common but false assumption that all mentally ill people are violent.

2 SAME/SIMILAR (usually before noun, no comparative) common aims, beliefs, ideas etc are shared by several people or groups: They had a satisfying sense of working towards a common goal.

(+ to): a theme that is common to all her novels | common ground (=shared opinions, beliefs etc among people who are usually separate): The two parties met to establish some common ground.

3 SHARED BY EVERYONE (usually before noun, no comparative) belonging to or shared by everyone in a society

(+ to): These problems are common to all societies. | the common good (=the advantage of everyone): Do they seriously think they're acting for the common good? | common knowledge (=something everyone knows): In a small town everyone's actions are common knowledge. | common land (=owned by the public) | by common consent (=agreed by everyone): Joe was chosen as captain by common consent.

4 common courtesy/decency a polite way of behaving that you expect from people: It's only common courtesy to write and thank them for the present.

5 ORDINARY (only before noun, no comparative) ordinary and not special in any way: The common people will not benefit from these reforms. | common salt | the common man (=ordinary people) | common-or-garden BrE slang (=very common and ordinary)

6 PERSON especially BrE old-fashioned an offensive word for someone from a low social class: Stop that! People will think we're common. | as common as muck BrE (=extremely common)

7 common practice a usual or accepted way of doing things: Sending kids away to school was common practice among the upper classes.

8 the common touch the ability of someone in a position of power or authority to talk to and understand ordinary people: He's made it to the top without losing the common touch.

2 noun

1 have sth in common (with sb) to have the same interests, attitudes etc as someone else: To my surprise, I found I had a lot in common with this stranger.

2 have sth in common (with sth) if objects or ideas have something in common, they share the same features: Their methods have a lot in common.

3 in common with sb/sth in the same way as someone or something else: In common with a lot of other countries, we're in an economic recession.

4 (C) a large area of grass in a village that people walk or play sport on

5 technical having the same relationship to two or more quantities: 5 is a common factor of 10 and 20