1. commonwealth - Noun
2. Commonwealth - Proper noun
A state; a body politic consisting of a certain number of men, united, by compact or tacit agreement, under one form of government and system of laws.
The whole body of people in a state; the public.
Specifically, the form of government established on the death of Charles I., in 1649, which existed under Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, ending with the abdication of the latter in 1659.
Source: Webster's dictionaryAn ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth. Henry Wotton
The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth. Samuel Johnson
The Commonwealth is a mere club, but it has become like an 'Animal Farm' where some members are more equal than others. How can Blair claim to regulate and direct events and still say all of us are equals? Robert Mugabe
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour'. Winston Churchill
The commonwealth of Venice in their armory have this inscription: "Happy is that city which in time of peace thinks of war." Robert Burton
For Spinoza, by contrast, there is to be no criminalization of ideas in the well-ordered state. Libertas philosophandi, the freedom of philosophizing, must be upheld for the sake of a healthy, secure and peaceful commonwealth and material and intellectual progress. Baruch Spinoza