What was the Aztec term for the commoner social class?

The Aztec term for the commoner social class was macehualtin. The singular form is macehualli, while the plural macehualtin referred to the broad class of ordinary people below the nobility.

Macehualtin included many farmers, craftspeople, laborers, and other non-noble residents of the empire. Rural families commonly worked land connected to a calpolli, a local community organization, and produced important crops such as maize, beans, and squash. They also owed tribute and labor to the state or to local elites.

The class was distinct from the pipiltin, the hereditary nobility, and from specialized groups such as the pochteca merchants. Social boundaries were real but not completely immovable: exceptional military achievement could sometimes bring a macehualli higher status. Macehualtin children generally attended the telpochcalli, or House of Youths, where they learned community duties, physical discipline, and military skills. After the conquest, macehual became a colonial Spanish term for a commoner or Indigenous subject.