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Citizen vs Commoner - What's the difference?

citizen | commoner |

As nouns the difference between citizen and commoner

is that citizen is a person who is legally recognized as a member of a state, with associated rights and obligations while commoner is a member of the common people who holds no title or rank.

As an adjective commoner is

comparative of common.

citizen

English

(wikipedia citizen)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A person who is legally recognized as a member of a state, with associated rights and obligations.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
    • , author=Steven Sloman , title=The Battle Between Intuition and Deliberation , volume=100, issue=1, page=74 , magazine= citation , passage=Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that “nudges” our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they were in control.}}
    When the rebellion broke out, the United States promptly evacuated its citizens from the area.
  • (dated) A member of a state that is not a monarchy; used in contrast with subject .
  • A person who is a legally recognized resident of a city or town.
  • * George Eliot
    • That large body of the working men who were not counted as citizens and had not so much as a vote to serve as an anodyne to their stomachs.
  • A resident of any particular place to which the subject feels he/she belongs.
  • * 2007', John English, '''''Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau
  • A civilian, as opposed to a soldier, police officer etc.

    • Synonyms

    * burgher * national

    Antonyms

    * alien * illegal * foreigner * stranger * subject

    Derived terms

    * anticitizen * citizeness * citizenhood * citizenish * citizenly * citizenry * citizenship

    Related terms

    * city * civil * civilian * denizen

    Anagrams

    *

    commoner

    English

    Etymology 1

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (common)
    • Usage notes
    * The potential for confusion with use of the noun as an adjective, especially in the UK, makes this form less desirable. It is much less commonly used than "more common".

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (wikipedia commoner) (en noun)
  • A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
  • (British) Someone who is not of noble rank.
  • * Hallam
    • All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners , and in the eye of the law equal to each other.
  • (British, at Oxbridge universities) An undergraduate who does not hold either a scholarship or an exhibition.
  • (obsolete, UK, Oxford University) A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges; at Cambridge called a pensioner.
  • Someone holding common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Much good land might be gained from forests and from other commonable places, so as always there be a due care taken that the poor commoners have no injury.
  • (obsolete) One sharing with another in anything.
    • (Fuller)
  • (obsolete) A prostitute.
    • (Shakespeare)