Glossary
Communication site vs team site
A communication site is for broadcasting to many readers — an intranet home, a policy hub, a department page. A team site is for a group collaborating, and comes connected to a Microsoft 365 group with its Teams, calendar and mailbox.
The practical difference is the permission default. A communication site assumes most people read and a few write; a team site assumes its members all contribute.
Choosing wrong is the most common structural mistake in an intranet project, because it is hard to undo later: the group membership and the Teams connection are not something you casually detach.