It will always mean the project of democratization and uprooting oligarchy, per its origin, as far as I'm concerned. Seems to me a lot of history goes with it if that ground is surrendered.

I grew up in propaganda soup that resulted in me feeling the yuck at the mention of communism, but I got over it when I found out what communism actually is. Now people can abuse the term all day and I will recognize it as ignorance or malice or both. I will continue to recognize that Marxism-Leninism is the most proven means of democratization and uprooting oligarchy.