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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
communism
noun
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
capitalism/communism/socialism etc with a human face
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Communism

Communism \Com"mu*nism\, n. [F. communisme, fr. commun common.] A scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life; specifically, a scheme which contemplates the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all.

Note: At different times, and in different countries, various schemes pertaining to socialism in government and the conditions of domestic life, as well as in the distribution of wealth, have been called communism.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
communism

"social system based on collective ownership," 1843, from French communisme (c.1840) from commun (Old French comun; see common (adj.)) + -isme (see -ism). Originally a theory of society; as name of a political system, 1850, a translation of German Kommunismus (itself from French), in Marx and Engels' "Manifesto of the Communist Party." Compare communist. In some cases in early and mid-20c., a term of abuse implying anti-social criminality without regard to political theory.\n\nEach [i.e. socialism, communism, anarchism] stands for a state of things, or a striving after it, that differs much from that which we know; & for many of us, especially those who are comfortably at home in the world as it is, they have consequently come to be the positive, comparative, & superlative, distinguished not in kind but in degree only, of the terms of abuse applicable to those who would disturb our peace.

[Fowler]

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Wiktionary
communism

n. 1 Any political philosophy or ideology advocating holding the production of resources collectively. 2 Any political social system that implements a communist political philosophy. 3 The international socialist society where classes and the state no longer exist.

WordNet
communism
  1. n. a form of socialism that abolishes private ownership

  2. a political theory favoring collectivism in a classless society

Wikipedia
Communism

In political and social sciences, communism (from Latin , "common, universal") is a social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state.

Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism ( anarchist communism), and the political ideologies grouped around both. All these hold in common the analysis that the current order of society stems from its economic system, capitalism, that in this system, there are two major social classes: the working class – who must work to survive, and who make up a majority of society – and the capitalist class – a minority who derive profit from employing the proletariat, through private ownership of the means of production (the physical and institutional means with which commodities are produced and distributed), and that political, social and economic conflict between these two classes will trigger a fundamental change in the economic system, and by extension a wide-ranging transformation of society. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to this analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production.

Communism (disambiguation)

Communism may refer to:

  • Communism, a political ideology and movement that opposes capitalism and aims to build a communist system;
  • Communist society (also "communist system" or "communist mode of production"), a hypothetical socioeconomic system in Marxist analysis postulated to arise after socialism and will be structured on the principle " from each according to his ability, to each according to his need";
  • A communist state, a state ruled by a Communist Party and guided by Marxist-Leninist ideology;
  • Primitive communism, a name for early hunter-gatherer societies that had no hierarchical social class structures or capital accumulation;
  • Marxism, a method of social analysis and a set of economic theories and theories on social evolution;
  • Marxism-Leninism, a political ideology that combines elements of Marxist analysis with the Leninist theory of imperialism and practice of Vanguardism and democratic centralism;
  • Religious communism, a combination of communist ideology and religious views, or a name for religious societies based on common ownership of property;
  • War communism, an economic policy in Soviet Russia during 1918–1921;
  • Communism Peak, a mountain in Tajikistan.

Usage examples of "communism".

In short, the Alamo project on which America was pinning its hopes for recovery was for Russia, and for communism as well, the promise of salvation.

Whereas the Lutherans had stood for passive obedience and the Anabaptists for revolutionary communism, the Calvinists appealed to the independent middle classes and gave them not only the enthusiasm to endure martyrdom but also--what the others had lacked--the will and the power to resist tyranny by force.

Vives wrote a special tract to refute the arguments of the Anabaptists on communism.

Thailand had been winning her long fight against Communism, but for many years Bangkok had been losing another war, the war against the drug lords of the Golden Triangle in the northern part of the country, and now the drug war was high on the agenda of the White House.

Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman now, or the Berrigans writing manifestos, or Polacks warning against godless communism and X-rated movies.

Court upset a conviction for perjury in the district courts of one who had denied under oath before a House Committee any affiliation with Communism.

Numerous lectures, dealing not only with Fourierism, various Utopias and communism, but also with the problems of serfdom, judicial and military reforms, constitutionalist or revolutionary methods, enabled Dostoyevsky, who was quick to understand systems through partisan exposition, to acquire a fairly complete political education.

A small Westernized intelligentzia with many internal feuds and doctrinal disputes struggled, not very effectively, in the larger towns to turn this merely insurgent Communism into modern and constructive paths after the Moscow pattern.

In 1961, on his last day in office, Eisenhower told President-elect Kennedy that if Laos were to fall to communism, it would be only a matter of time before South Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma fell too.

They tore down temples and shrines: Mao wanted communism to have no competition from other religions.

The barbarian nature of the Russians is itself Bolshevism, but Marxian Communism is purely an export article in Russia, while in the United States, it is an accomplished fact.

It will be seen that the communism of the missions was of a limited character, and, though the land was cultivated by the labour of the community, that the products were administered by the Jesuits alone.

I admit my bias and my mixed motives, and having admitted them, state frankly that the Nurnberg of Communism is yet to come.

He had reunified Germany, funneling massive sums of money from West to East Germany to lift the incomes of those who had made far less under communism.

Perhaps it was just looking to the future, to the possible collapse of Communism - some shrewdies are always prepared for the worst.