commonwealth, nation, race, state, tribe. community, population,
A _community_ is in general terms the aggregate of persons inhabiting any territory in common and viewed as having common interests; a _commonwealth_ is such a body of persons having a common government, especially a republican government; as, the _commonwealth_ of Massachusetts. A _community_ may be very small; a _commonwealth_ is ordinarily of considerable extent. A _people_ is the aggregate of any public _community_, either in distinction from their rulers or as including them; a _race_ is a division of mankind in the line of origin and ancestry; the _people_ of the United States includes members of almost every _race_. The use of _people_ as signifying persons collectively, as in the statement "The hall was full of _people_," has been severely criticized, but is old and accepted English, and may fitly be classed as idiomatic, and often better than _persons_, by reason of its collectivism. As Dean Alford suggests, it would make a strange transformation of the old hymn "All _people_ that on earth do dwell" to sing "All _persons_ that on earth do dwell." A _state_ is an organized political _community_ considered in its corporate capacity as "a body politic and corporate;" as, a legislative act is the act of the _state_; every citizen is entitled to the protection of the _state_. A _nation_ is an organized political _community_ considered with reference to the persons composing it as having certain definite boundaries, a definite number of citizens, etc. The members of a _people_ are referred to as persons or individuals; the individual members of a _state_ or _nation_ are called citizens or subjects. The _population_ of a country is simply the aggregate of persons residing within its borders, without reference to _race_, organization, or allegiance; unnaturalized residents form part of the _population_, but not of the _nation_, possessing none of the rights and being subject to none of the duties of citizens. In American usage _State_ signifies one _commonwealth_ of the federal union known as the United _States_. _Tribe_ is now almost wholly applied to rude _peoples_ with very imperfect political organization; as, the Indian _tribes_; nomadic _tribes_. Compare MOB.