the Commonwealth

noun

1

: a U.S. state

—used officially of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia

the Commonwealth of Kentucky

2

: the countries that were once part of the British Empire

Examples of the Commonwealth in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Hilary Beckles, the chair of the Caribbean Community's reparations commission, called on Charles to respond to the demands of Caribbean people as a human being, not as the head of the Commonwealth or the monarch of the United Kingdom. — ABC News, 28 Oct. 2026

During her 70-year reign, the monarch made the Commonwealth one of the pillars of her institutional work, guiding the transformation of an organization tied to the history of the British Empire into a voluntary association of independent states. — Ilaria Perrotta, Vanity Fair, 27 Oct. 2026

AndTribal Nations deserve to know that the Commonwealth’s environmental decisions recognize the cultural and historical significance of the waters that connect our communities to our ancestral homelands. — Dana Adkins, Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2026

But the literary magazine Granta, which had published the story as part of an agreement with the Commonwealth Foundation, canceled its relationship for future competitions. — T.m. Brown, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2026

Rhymes for the Commonwealth

• bridewealth
• health
• stealth
• wealth
• telehealth