Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - communism

 noun  Etymology: French ~e, from commun common  Date: 1840  1.  a. a theory advocating elimination of private property  b. a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed  2. capitalized  a. a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics  b. a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production  c. a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably  d. communist systems collectively