Communist

• Commie; Commo (Australia)

Communist (plural Communists)

1. A member of a formally constituted Communist Party.
   • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. III:

     ...all through the between-war years no Socialist programme that was both revolutionary and workable ever appeared; basically, no doubt, because no one genuinely wanted any major change to happen... The Communists wanted to go on and on, suffering a comfortable martyrdom, meeting with endless defeats and afterwards putting the blame on other people.

2. A proponent of the kind of communism formally espoused by such a party, typically either Marxism, or more commonly, Leninism or Maoism.
3. (inexact) Any member of an organization, especially a military force, controlled and led by a formally constituted Communist Party, even if most individual members of the organization are not party members.
   • 1951, Memorandum on the Substance of Discussions at a Department of State–Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting, January 30, 1951‎^[1]:

     For example, what will happen if a landing is achieved and the Communists are advancing with some success?

4. (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Alternative letter-case form of communist, a proponent of the general philosophy of communism.

• (party member): Red, cadre, party member, apparatchik (general); Chicom (PRC)
• (philosophical proponent): Red, Marxist (general); Bolshevik, Leninist, Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, Stalinite (USSR); Maoist, Chicom (PRC); Titoist (Yugoslavia); Hoxhaist (Albania); Sankarist (Burkina Faso)
• (citizen of a communist country): Red (general); Soviet (USSR); Red Chinese, Chicom (PRC)

• comsymp

Communist (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to a formally constituted Communist Party.
2. (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Alternative letter-case form of communist, of or related to the general philosophy of communism.
3. (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Alternative letter-case form of communistic, embodying the ideals of communism.

• uncommits