A collective is a group of people who are organized around an issue or to accomplish a goal together. Collectives can have many different features, but one that unites them is an egalitarian or non-hierarchical way of relating. Meetings are often conducted using the consensus process.

A collective household, also called commune or intentional community, is a group of people living together in a house, apartment, or in some other arrangement such as sharing land together. Collective households may be organized around a specific project such as a business, around raising children, or based upon shared interests.

The term collective is sometimes used to descrbe a species as a whole, for example the human collective. In communist countries it is often stressed by those in charge of propaganda that an individual ought not orient his or her thoughts torwards what is best for him or herself but rather orient ones thoughts torwards what's best for the collective. This sort of thinking makes it so that an individual does not see oneself as a whole unit. In this case the individual sees oneself as a part of a whole, the whole being the state.

See also: The Collective