What does commune mean?
A commune is most familiarly an intentional community: a group of people who choose to live together, sharing property, labour, and often income in pursuit of a cooperative way of life. Such communities flourished in Western counterculture during the 1960s and 1970s, though the idea reaches back much further through religious and utopian movements. In a separate administrative sense, a commune is also the smallest unit of local government in France and several other European countries, comparable to a township or municipality. As a verb, to commune means to engage in deep, intimate exchange of thought or feeling — people may commune with nature, with God, or with one another. The word derives ultimately from Latin communis, meaning 'shared' or 'held in common,' making it a close cousin of words like community and common. Its connotations range from idealism and simplicity to, less flatteringly, impracticality or social experiment gone wrong.
A group of people living together and sharing possessions, work, and responsibilities.
"They abandoned their careers to join an artists' commune on the Welsh coast."
The smallest administrative division in France and some other countries, equivalent to a township or parish.
"The village became an official commune under Napoleon's administrative reforms."
To share one's innermost thoughts and feelings intimately, especially with nature, the divine, or another person.
"At the lakeside cabin she would sit for hours, communing silently with the mountains."
Almost always followed by 'with'; stress falls on the second syllable.
Standard plural for both the community sense and the administrative-division sense.
"Several experimental communes were established across California during the 1970s."
When English speakers 'commune with nature,' they're using the same Latin root that gave us 'common' — literally holding something in common with the world around them.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of commune
Commune entered English in the late Middle Ages via Old French comune, from Late Latin communia, derived from communis ('shared by all'), the same root that produced common, community, and communicate. The noun originally referred to a body of townspeople acting collectively — as in the medieval 'Commune of Paris' — before acquiring its modern senses of shared-living groups and French administrative divisions. The verb developed later, expressing intimate spiritual or emotional interchange, retaining the core idea of sharing what lies within.
How commune is actually used
The noun is stressed on the first syllable (/ˈkɒmjuːn/), while the verb is stressed on the second (/kəˈmjuːn/) — a distinction worth preserving in speech. The verb carries a contemplative, somewhat elevated or spiritual register; it rarely takes a direct object except in the reflexive-like phrase 'commune with.'
Easily confused with commune
A community is any group sharing a locality or interest, while a commune specifically involves communal living and shared property.