Definition of "commune"

commune¹

/ˈkɒmjuːn/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural communes
1. A small community, often rural, whose members share in the ownership of property, and in the division of labour; the members of such a community.
  Quotations
  The town of Chu-chou in Hunan Province, carrying out the great directive of Chairman Mao that "educated youths must go to the villages," has put into practice factory-commune links, and under the leadership of cadres, has made a collective settlement of educated youths in commune and brigade farms, forest areas, and tea plantations.
  1975, Peter J. Seybolt, editor, The Rustication of Urban Youth in China‎, published 2015, page 148
2. A local political division in many European countries.
3. (obsolete) The commonalty; the common people.
4. (uncountable, obsolete) Communion; sympathetic conversation between friends.
  Quotations
  For days of happy commune dead.
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], (please specify |part=prologue or epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)
5. (historical) A self-governing city or league of citizens.
  Quotations
  In 1117 the commune and archbishop had separate consuls at Milan.
  1997, David Nicholas, The Growth of the Medieval City: From Late Antiquity to the Early Fourteenth Century, page 161

commune²

/kəˈmjuːn/

verb
third-person singular simple present communes, present participle communing, simple past and past participle communed
1. To converse together with sympathy and confidence; to interchange sentiments or feelings; to take counsel.
  Quotations
  I would commune with you of such things / That want no ear but yours.
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]
2. (intransitive, followed by with) To communicate (with) spiritually; to be together (with); to contemplate or absorb.
3. (Christianity, intransitive) To receive the communion.
  Quotations
  Namely, in these things, in prohibiting that none should commune alone, in making the People whole Communers, or in suffering them to Commune under both kinds […]
  1681, Gilbert Burnet, “[A Collection of Records, and Original Papers; with Other Instruments Referred to in the Second Part of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England.] Book I.”, in The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. The Second Part, […], London: […] T[homas] H[odgkin] for Richard Chiswell, […], page 207