A commoner is someone who isn't part of the nobility or royal family. In countries with kings and queens, like England or Japan, most people are commoners: regular citizens who live, work, and raise families without royal titles.

Throughout most of history, being a commoner meant you couldn't inherit thrones, own certain lands, or hold particular government positions. Those privileges belonged to nobles: dukes, counts, barons, and other aristocrats. A commoner might be wealthy or poor, talented or ordinary, but they lacked the special legal status that came with noble birth.

The word matters most when discussing monarchy and social class. When Prince William married Kate Middleton, news articles called her a commoner because she hadn't been born into royalty or nobility, even though her family was quite successful. The fairy tale of Cinderella tells the story of a commoner who marries a prince.

In the United States, which rejected monarchy and nobility from its founding, everyone is technically a commoner. The Constitution even forbids the government from granting titles of nobility. Americans don't have dukes or earls, just citizens who are equal under the law, regardless of who their parents are.