fwiw the word “commonwealth” is…essentially meaningless. If you hear someone say commonwealth on its own, they’re probably talking about the Commonwealth of Nations as @scholar@lemmy.world described. The Commonwealth of Nations is basically a loose grouping of countries that do various things together. Probably the most noteworthy thing they do together is the Commonwealth Games, a sort of mini-Olympics.
But several other things also use the word. There’s the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet states. There’s Australia, a country whose full name (in the way the full name of America is the United States of America) is the Commonwealth of Australia (and in Australia, “the Commonwealth” is sometimes used synonymously with “the federal Government”). There are several states in America which are properly termed commonwealths, such as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
fwiw the word “commonwealth” is…essentially meaningless. If you hear someone say commonwealth on its own, they’re probably talking about the Commonwealth of Nations as @scholar@lemmy.world described. The Commonwealth of Nations is basically a loose grouping of countries that do various things together. Probably the most noteworthy thing they do together is the Commonwealth Games, a sort of mini-Olympics.
But several other things also use the word. There’s the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet states. There’s Australia, a country whose full name (in the way the full name of America is the United States of America) is the Commonwealth of Australia (and in Australia, “the Commonwealth” is sometimes used synonymously with “the federal Government”). There are several states in America which are properly termed commonwealths, such as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.