[f. L. collectīv-us COLLECTIVE + -ITY: cf. nativity, and see -ITY.]
1. Collective state or quality; collectiveness.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 160. Máyá, illusion, avidyá, nescience, and ajnána, ignorance,—when these two denote collectivity,—are synonyms.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 179. Every unsocial act or sentiment tends to overthrow that collectivity of effort to which we owe all.
b. concr. The whole taken collectively; the aggregate, sum, mass.
1882. Pop. Sc. Monthly, XXI. 436. The collectivity of living existence becomes a self-improving machine.
2. Collective ownership, collectivism in practice.
1872. Contemp. Rev., XX. 573. I vote for the collectivity of the soil … and of all the social wealth.
3. The collective body of people forming a community or state.
1881. Gambetta, in Standard, 21 March, 5/7. The State is the real collectivity—the State is everybody, it is the country.
1884. Rae, Contemp. Socialism, 140. An omnipotent and centralised political authority—call it the State, call it the collectivity, call it what you like—which should have the final disposal of everything.
