An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to promote a much higher degree of social interaction than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political or spiritual vision. They also share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include cohousing, residential land trusts, ecovillages, communes, kibbutzim, ashrams, and housing cooperatives. Typically, new members of an intentional community are selected by the community's existing membership, rather than by real-estate agents or land owners.

It is important to note that in the context of intentional communities the above terms have different meanings compared to the legal forms of real estate ownership that may have the same name. For example the members of a cohousing intentional community may own their homes by owning shares in a housing cooperative.

The purposes of intentional communities vary. They may include sharing resources, creating family-oriented neighborhoods and living ecologically sustainable lifestyles (ecovillages). Some communities are secular; others have a spiritual basis. Commonly there is a focus on egalitarian values. Other themes are voluntary simplicity, interpersonal growth and self-reliance. Some communities provide services to disadvantaged populations, for example, war refugees, the homeless, or people with developmental disabilities. Some communities operate learning or health centers.

Many communities have different types or levels of membership. Typically, intentional communities have a selection process which starts with someone interested in the community coming for a visit. Often prospective community members are interviewed by a selection committee of the community or in some cases by the everyone in the community. Many communities have a "provisional membership" period. After a visitor has been accepted a new member is "provisional" until they have stayed for some period (often 6 months or a year) and then the community re-evaluates their membership. Generally, after the provisional member has been accepted they become a full member. In many communities the voting privileges and/or community benefits for provisional members are less than those for full members.

Beyond Barter, "The Los Angeles Skills Pool," is a community of persons who don't live together but share each other's services. Christian intentional communities are usually composed of those wanting to emulate the practices of the earliest believers. Using "The Acts of the Apostles" in the Bible as a model, members of these communities strive for a practical outworking of their individual faith in a corporate context. According to the Communities Directory (1995), published by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, 54% of the communities listed are rural, 28% are urban, 10% have both rural and urban sites, and 8% don't specify.