Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use common in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Common means mutual; shared by more than one. Example: “The two competitors have the common aim of winning the championship.”

Examples of common by meaning

adjectiveMutual; shared by more than one.

  • The two competitors have the common aim of winning the championship.
  • Winning the championship is an aim common to the two competitors.
  • Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

adjectiveExisting among virtually all people; universal.

  • common knowledge, common decency, common sense

adjectiveOccurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.

  • It is common to find sharks off this coast.
  • A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193

adjectiveFound in large numbers or in a large quantity; usual.

  • "Commoner" used to be commoner, but "more common" is now more common.
  • Sharks are common in these waters.
  • It differs from the common blackbird in the size of its beak.

adjectiveSimple, ordinary or vulgar.

  • the common folk

adjectiveAs part of the vernacular name of a species, usually denoting that it is abundant or widely known.

  • the common daisy (Bellis perennis)

adjectiveVernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal.

  • common name vs. scientific name.

nounA tract of land in common ownership; common land.

  • Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick
  • Throughout the land there is a great variation in the shape and size of village greens, from the many of pocket-handkerchief size to a roadside common of 20 acres or more - as at Lindfield in West Sussex.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, pages 264-265

More sentences with common

  • The club that is now mostly used for golf was once a common weapon.From the entry weapon
  • Also common are languages, like Latin, with a three-way distinction (proximal, medial and distal).From the entry also
  • A side salad is a common accompaniment to a main dish.From the entry accompaniment
  • At common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person.From the entry person
  • There's a common tendency among first-game visitors to a casino to bet overcautiously.From the entry tendency
  • As the years wore on, we seemed to have less and less in common.From the entry wear
  • It’s common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.From the entry sense
  • The consumption of snails as food is more common in France than in England.From the entry consumption
  • It's very common for black cats to rust during the summer.From the entry rust
  • Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.From the entry primary
  • Tigers and lions share a common ancestor from a few million years ago.From the entry lion
  • The most common use of "antidisestablishmentarianism" is as an example of a sesquipedalian word.From the entry sesquipedalian
  • It has become less common to say grace before having dinner.From the entry grace
  • The Renaissance festival started with the "peasants" meeting in the commons.From the entry commons
  • The commons is the green space surrounded by the village hall, the school, and the church.From the entry commons
  • "The Big Apple" is a common nickname for New York City.From the entry nickname
  • The most common level of the colour variable is red. The other levels are blue and green.From the entry level
  • The most common symptom is a mild mottle on the youngest leaves of infected plants.From the entry mottle
  • María is a common middle name in Spanish, as in José María García.From the entry middle name
  • It's polite to begin a letter with a greeting, but this practice is less common in email.From the entry greeting
  • Some point to the creation of Magna Carta as the genesis of English common law.From the entry genesis
  • Cellulose, starches, and complex carbohydrates, such as glycogen, are common polysaccharides in biology.From the entry polysaccharide
  • Finding the optimal balance between features and price is a common problem.From the entry optimal
  • Idioms are a common stumbling block for learners of a language.From the entry stumbling block
  • Look in other contemporaneous works to see whether that idea was common then.From the entry contemporaneous
  • The Indo-European languages share various similarities as a result of their inheritance from a common ancestor.From the entry inheritance

Meaning of common

  1. adjective Mutual; shared by more than one.
  2. adjective Existing among virtually all people; universal.
  3. adjective Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.

Full definition of common

Questions about common in a sentence

How do you use common in a sentence?
Common is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “The two competitors have the common aim of winning the championship.”
What is a short sentence with common?
“the common folk”
What does common mean?
Common means mutual; shared by more than one.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: common (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use common in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/common. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.