Definition of Commonwealth

• the official name of some states in the United States (Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Kentucky) and associated territories (Puerto Rico)
• a politically organized body of people under a single government; "the state has elected a new president"; "African nations"; "students who had come to the nations capitol"; "the countrys largest manufacturer"; "an industrialized land"
• a world organization of autonomous states that are united in allegiance to a central power but are not subordinate to it or to one another