comum

Comum is a word in Portuguese with several related uses rooted in the notion of shared or ordinary. It stems from the Latin communis, meaning common or public. In contemporary Portuguese, comum functions primarily as an adjective meaning ordinary, habitual, or widespread, and it can describe things that are typical of everyday life or things that are shared among members of a group.

As a noun phrase, o comum can refer to the general public or to ordinary people. In philosophical or political language, the expression bem comum translates to the common good or public interest, indicating what benefits the community as a whole. The term can also appear in discussions about customary practices or common characteristics shared by a group.

The concept of the commons, often expressed in Portuguese as bens comuns or simply os comuns, extends comum beyond everyday language to a framework used in political economy, environmental policy, and anthropology. It denotes resources—natural, cultural, or informational—that are accessible to a community and governed collectively. Governance of the commons emphasizes rules, monitoring, and social norms designed to sustain shared resources such as water, pastures, or knowledge.

In other Romance languages, related terms exist but with different distinctions. Spanish uses común as the adjective for common, while Italian uses comune to denote a municipality; neither usage is identical to the Portuguese comum. In everyday Portuguese, however, comum remains a versatile word bridging ordinary description with ideas of shared public life.