- common
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Analogous words: shared, partaken, participated (see SHARE vb): joined or joint, united, conjoined, connected, associated (see corresponding verbs at JOIN): merged, blended, amalgamated (see MIX)Antonyms: individual2 mutual, *reciprocalAnalogous words: &Antonyms: see those at COMMON 13 Common, ordinary, familiar, popular, vulgar are comparable when they mean being or having the character of what is generally or usually met with and not in any way special, strange, or unusual.Common implies the lack of distinguishing, conspicuous, or exceptional qualities; positively, it suggests usualness, everyday character or quality, or frequency of occurrence{
the common people
}{a common soldier
}{the common chickweed
}{a common error
}{he lacks common honesty
}{for common men and women two or three of the common loves will suffice—the love of family and home, of school and church, of mountain and sea— Eliot
}Often the term also connotes inferiority, coarseness, lack of breeding, or low station{the common herd
}{of common clay
}{O hard is the bed . . . and common the blanket and cheap— Housman
}{a common fellow with no notion of politeness or manners
}Ordinary expresses more definitely accordance with the regular order or run of things{the ordinary intercourse of man with man— Newman
}{it is not an ordinary war. It is a revolution . . . which threatens all men everywhere— Roosevelt
}It usually implies qualities not above, and frequently below, the average{choice word and measured phrase, above the reach of ordinary men— Wordsworth
}{let others expatiate on trivial objects, ordinary characters, and uninteresting events— Landor
}As a term of depreciation ordinary is similar to but less contemptuous than common (a very ordinary- looking person){his ability is no more than ordinary
}Familiar stresses something that is generally known and easily recognized because of its frequency of occurrence or one's constant association with it rather than because of its lack of distinguishing qualities{the tyranny of familiar surroundings over the imagination— Russell
}{to remind you of what is so familiar as to be frequently forgotten— Frankfurter
}{the doctrine of Einstein, which sweeps away axioms so familiar to us that they seem obvious truths, and substitutes others which seem absurd because they are unfamiliar— Ellis
}Popular and vulgar (see also COARSE) imply commonness that arises from use or acceptance by or prevalence among the vast majority of persons, often specifically among the common people of a country or an age{popular fallacies
}{the vulgar tongue
}Popular more often stresses the implication of widespread prevalence, currency, or favor among the people than does vulgar, which even in this sense nearly always carries derogatory connotations (as of inferiority or coarseness){a popular song
}{dancing ... of all the arts . . . most associated in the popular mind with pleasure— Ellis
}{this mode of interpreting Scripture is fatal to the vulgar notion of its verbal inspiration— Arnold
}{a popular instead of an accurate and legal conception of what the word monopolize in the statute means— Justice Holmes
}{we were reluctant to expose those silent and beautiful places to vulgar curiosity— Cather
}Analogous words: prevalent, *prevailing, rife, current: *usual, customary: *plentiful, abundant, ampleAntonyms: uncommon: exceptionalContrasted words: rare, *infrequent, occasional: singular, unique, peculiar, odd, *strange
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
