Quote from Wikipedia:
Four of the constituent states of the United States officially designate themselves Commonwealths: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. This designation, which has no constitutional impact, emphasizes that they have a "government based on the common consent of the people" as opposed to one legitimized through their earlier Royal Colony status that was derived from the King of Great Britain. The word commonwealth in this context refers to the common "wealth" or welfare of the public and is an older term for "republic".

Quote from About.com:
There is no difference between a commonwealth and a state in the U.S. To Locke, Hobbes, and other 17th-century writers the term "commonwealth" meant an organized political community -- what we today call a "state." Officially Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts are all commonwealths. When Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts became part of the United States, they merely took the old form of state in their title.

Today, commonwealth also means a political unit having local autonomy but voluntarily united with the U.S. These are Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_(U.S._state)
http://geography.about.com/b/2006/12/09/commonwealth-vs-state.htm

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They are the same thing ... when Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts became part of the United States they just used an older term for what today we call a state.

http://backwardpresent.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/usa_map.jpg
Source(s):
http://geography.about.com/b/2006/12/09/commonwealth-vs-state.htm

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Commonwealth (political science)

A body politic founded on law for the common “weal,” or good. The term was often used by 17th-century writers, for example, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, to signify the concept of the organized political community. For them it meant much the same as either civitas or respublica did for the Romans, or as “the state” means in the 20th century. Cicero defined the res publica as an association held together by law.

Specifically, commonwealth served as the label of the Cromwellian regime in Great Britain (1649–60). Modern usage has further extended the term. Thus, the Australian colonies were federated as states in 1900 under the official title of the Commonwealth of Australia. Then, as various British colonies evolved from a status subordinate to the United Kingdom into an association of equal partners, the new relationship was named a Commonwealth. After India became a republic and chose to remain inside the Commonwealth, the phrase “head of the Commonwealth” was substituted for “Emperor of India” in the royal title, and Queen Elizabeth II was so crowned in 1953.

State (sovereign political entity)

political organization of society, or the body politic, or, more narrowly, the institutions of government. The state is a form of human association distinguished from other social groups by its purpose, the establishment of order and security; its methods, the laws and their enforcement; its territory, the area of jurisdiction or geographic boundaries; and finally by its sovereignty. The state consists, most broadly, of the agreement of the individuals on the means whereby disputes are settled in the form of laws. In such countries as the United States, Australia, Nigeria, Mexico, and Brazil, the term state (or a cognate) also refers to political units, not sovereign themselves, but subject to the authority of the larger state, or federal union.

Massachusetts Commonwealth

From 1776 to 1780 the words "State of Massachusetts Bay" appeared on the top of all acts and resolves. In 1780, the Massachusetts Constitution went into effect. Part Two of the Constitution, under the heading "Frame of Government" states: "that the people ... form themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent body politic, or state by the name of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts." Virginia (on June 29, 1776) and Pennsylvania (on September 25, 1776) adopted Constitutions which called their respective states commonwealths. Kentucky is also a commonwealth. Commonwealths are states, but the reverse is not true.

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=afterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Research+%26+Technology&L2=Legal+%26+Legislative+Resources&L3=Massachusetts+Lawmaking+Process&sid=Eoaf&b=terminalcontent&f=lib_massresources_massfrequentquestions_whycommonwealth&csid=Eoaf

Difference between a Commonwealth and a State...........................

visit this site............

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_a_%27commonwealth%27_and_a_%27state%27
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