commence Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb take the first step or steps in carrying out an action
    begin; get; start out; set about; start; set out; get down.
    • We began working at dawn
    • Who will start?
    • Get working as soon as the sun rises!
    • The first tourists began to arrive in Cambodia
    • He began early in the day
    • Let's get down to work now
  2. verb set in motion, cause to start
    lead off; start; begin.
    • The U.S. started a war in the Middle East
    • The Iraqis began hostilities
    • begin a new chapter in your life
  3. verb get off the ground
    start; start up; embark on.
    • Who started this company?
    • We embarked on an exciting enterprise
    • I start my day with a good breakfast
    • We began the new semester
    • The afternoon session begins at 4 PM
    • The blood shed started when the partisans launched a surprise attack

WordNet

Com*mence" intransitive verb
Etymology
F. commencer, OF. commencier, fr. L. com- + initiare to begin. See Initiate.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Commenced ; present participle & verbal noun Commencing
Definitions
  1. To have a beginning or origin; to originate; to start; to begin.
    Here the anthem doth commence. Shak.
    His heaven commences ere the world be past. Goldsmith.
  2. To begin to be, or to act as. Archaic
    We commence judges ourselves. Coleridge.
  3. To take a degree at a university. Eng.
    I question whether the formality of commencing was used in that age. Fuller.
Com*mence" transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To enter upon; to begin; to perform the first act of.
    Many a wooer doth commence his suit. Shak.
    ✍ It is the practice of good writers to use the verbal noun (instead of the infinitive with to) after commence; as, he commenced studying, not he commenced to study.

Webster 1913