Common may refer to:
- COMMON, the largest association of users of mid-range IBM computers
- Common (horse), a British Thoroughbred racehorse
- Common (liturgy), a part of certain Christian liturgy
- Commoner, someone does not hold a title of peerage
- Common land, land which other people have certain traditional rights such as grazing livestock or collecting firewood
- Town common (see common land above)
- Lingua franca or common language, shared by speakers of different mother tongues
- Vernacular, the common but not scientific name of a plant or animal
- The Common, a nickname of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- COMMON, a Fortran statement
- a translation of tum'ah, a biblical term for ritual impurity, used by some common English translations of the bible
- Dol Common, a character in The Alchemist by Ben Jonson
Famous quotes containing the word common:
“The line of separation was very distinct, and the Indian immediately remarked, “I guess you and I go there,—I guess there’s room for my canoe there.” This was his common expression instead of saying “we.” He never addressed us by our names, though curious to know how they were spelled and what they meant, while we called him Polis. He had already guessed very accurately at our ages, and said that he was forty-eight.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The mere fact of leaving ultimate social control in the hands of the people has not guaranteed that men will be able to conduct their lives as free men. Those societies where men know they are free are often democracies, but sometimes they have strong chiefs and kings. ... they have, however, one common characteristic: they are all alike in making certain freedoms common to all citizens, and inalienable.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
...
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)