commoner — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.

2. Someone who is not of noble rank.

   Usage

   • UK usage

   Examples

   All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners, and in the eye of the law equal to each other.

   More examples (1)

   It was revealed on Friday that Mountbatten Windsor is in line to receive a large one-off payment and an annual stipend designed to prevent him overspending in his new life as a commoner after a back-and-forth about where he would go after leaving Royal Lodge.

3. Someone who is not of noble rank. A Member of Parliament in the House of Commons.

   Usage

   • UK usage
   • Historical

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   I am now received in, and made a Member of this Honorable Houſe of Commons, though it be a thing ſtrange, and not common in England, for an Earl and a member of the LORDS Houſe to be made a Commoner, or removed from the upper end of the to the Lower end of the Table.

4. Someone who is not of noble rank. One eligible to be a member of the House of Commons.

   Usage

   • UK usage
   • Historical

   Examples

   [I]f he be a Commoner of ſuch as is capable of being in the Houſe of Commons, at leaſt, unleſſe some Law have diſabled him.

5. A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges.

   Usage

   • UK usage
   • Obsolete

   Synonyms

   pensioner

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   There are to this day fellow-commoners at Queens, and surely such a distinguished commoner as Fuller would have been allowed to remain on that foundation, in which he had spent seven years, in this new capacity. The expense would have been about the same, and the only way in which I can account for his migration is either pique at being passed over, or the friendship of so famed a theologian as Dr. Ward.

6. Someone who has a right over another's land. They hold common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land. eg: centuries-old grazing rights

   Examples

   Much good land might be gained from forests […] and from other commonable places, so as always there be a due care taken that the poor commoners have no injury.

7. One sharing with another in anything.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   From the Counsell he was carried home to the Prison, and there for many days kept with bread and water, so that had the proudest Anchorite, pretending to the highest abstinence, been Commoner with him, it would have tried his swiftest Devotion to keepe pace with him.

8. A prostitute.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   O behold this ring / Whose high respect and rich validity / Did lack a parallel; yet for all that / He gave it to a commoner o'th' camp, / If I be one.

9. a rankless or average player in Tycoon; not the tycoon, rich, poor, or beggar.

Noun

1. a person who holds no title

   Synonyms

   common person

   Broader terms

   actordoerworker