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.
☞ 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.