common ground

noun

A characteristic or interest shared by multiple people or systems; any belief, etc. held in common.

“The first thing to do is to find common ground with the person you just met.”

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Meanings

nouncommon ground (uncountable)
  1. idiomaticuncountableA characteristic or interest shared by multiple people or systems; any belief, etc. held in common.

    The first thing to do is to find common ground with the person you just met.

    2 more examples

    You'll say, we've got nothing in common No common ground to start from And we're falling apart

    1993 October 13, Todd Pipes, “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, in Home, performed by Deep Blue Something, published 11 July 1995

    On Monday, he tasked his third prime minister in 12 months, Sébastien Lecornu, to try again to find common ground between political parties dead set against doing so.

    2025 October 11, Sylvie Kaufmann, “How domestic deadlock brought Macron back to earth”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9
  2. uncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see common, ground; especially, common land.

Translations

Catalan terreny comú
  • terreny comúcommonly held beliefs or interests
Finnish yhteinen pohja
  • yhteinen pohjacommonly held beliefs or interests
French terrain d’entente, points communs
  • terrain d’ententecommonly held beliefs or interests
  • points communscommonly held beliefs or interests
Hebrew מכנה משותף
  • מכנה משותף (makhané m'shutáf)commonly held beliefs or interests
Italian terreno d'intesa, terreno comune
  • terreno d'intesacommonly held beliefs or interests
  • terreno comunecommonly held beliefs or interests
  • punto d'incontrocommonly held beliefs or interests
Polish płaszczyzna porozumienia
  • płaszczyzna porozumieniacommonly held beliefs or interests
Portuguese etendimento comum, terreno comum
  • etendimento comumcommonly held beliefs or interests
  • terreno comumcommonly held beliefs or interests
Romanian teren comun, numitor comun
  • teren comuncommonly held beliefs or interests
  • numitor comuncommonly held beliefs or interests
Spanish comunaleza, comunalía
  • comunalezacommonly held beliefs or interests
  • comunalíacommonly held beliefs or interests
  • terreno comúncommonly held beliefs or interests
  • puntos en comúncommonly held beliefs or interests
Cite this entry
APA

common ground. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/common%20ground

MLA

“common ground.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/common%20ground. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “common ground,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/common%20ground.

Source: common ground on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.