Communism

How to spell communism

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce communism

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does communism mean?

1. nounA political and economic system in which property and the means of production are owned collectively rather than by individuals.

Communism in a sentence

• The history lecture compared communism with free-market capitalism.

• The novel is set in a country that abandoned communism in the early 1990s.

Where does communism come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1840s, borrowed from the French communisme, which was coined a little earlier from commun, meaning 'common' or 'shared'. That French word descends from the Latin communis, literally 'belonging to all' or 'shared in common', formed from com- (together) and an element related to munus (duty, gift, or public service). The same Latin root gives us 'community', 'common', and 'communal', all of which carry that idea of things held jointly. The political sense, a system in which property and the means of production are owned collectively, spread quickly after the writings of Marx and Engels mid century. For spelling, it helps to see the buried word 'common' inside it: the double m sits at the join of commun- before the -ism ending, so it is one m then a doubled mm, not a doubled m elsewhere.

How the word is built

• commun- (from Latin communis: common, shared)
• -ism (doctrine or system)