Meaning

noun the official name of some states in the United States (Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Kentucky) and associated territories (Puerto Rico)

noun a politically organized body of people under a single government

noun a world organization of autonomous states that are united in allegiance to a central power but are not subordinate to it or to one another

originFrom common (“public”) + wealth (“well-being”). From c. 1450 as common wele (commonweal). In the form common-wealth (common welthe) from c. 1520, used by Tyndale in the sense "secular society" in particular, for which other authors preferred publike weal. Also from the 1520s treated as a synonym or loan-translation of res publica (republic) (Rollison 2017:67f).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0