Definition of commence
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: to have or make a beginning : start
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Examples of commence in a Sentence
- Dear God, I thought, I've been infected by an earworm. My friend the Longhair says that's what you call songs that burrow into your head and commence chewing your brains. —Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Apr./1 May 2009
- He thereupon commenced giving me this fantastically boring lecture about how the only reason I want a stuffed chicken is because they look so good in a shop window, and that the moment I received one I'd start dreaming up ways to ditch it. —Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1991
- The policy would commence not only with the limiting of permits for the building of hotels and boats but with supervision—through expert architectural advice—of the construction of these boats and hotels … —William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, (1953) 1982
- "Why shoot, I thought you wanted to be a lawyer, you've already commenced going to court." The ladies laughed again. —Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
- I have commenced two letters to send you before this, both of which displeased me before I got half done, and so I tore them up. —Abraham Lincoln, letter, 4 May 1837
The festivities will commence with a parade.
Their contract commences in January.
The court commenced criminal proceedings.
The country has commenced preparations for war.
Recent Examples of commence from the Web
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Search efforts commenced the following day, after two hunters reported finding their vehicle stuck in mud off a trail near Moorestown.
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Saba commences a national headlining tour this spring, before coming home to perform at Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival in July.
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Toward that end the 5k commences at 9 a.m. with check-in starting at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
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In Clark’s case, the process took 11 days before commencing, due to the time between both the coroner’s examination and the secondary private autopsy.
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Large-scale removal of the debris has not commenced, which could take three to five years to complete the cleanout.
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Following a season where many designers at New York Fashion Week surprisingly opted not to delve into politics, Maria Grazia Chiuri went all-in to commence Paris Fashion Week, making her message for Dior's Fall 2018 show loud and clear.
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The four days of coverage of on-field stuff commences at 9 a.m. ET Friday and runs through Monday.
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An exchange commenced between the two on social media.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'commence.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
commence Synonyms
Synonyms
begin, embark (on or upon), enter (into or upon), fall (to), get off, kick off, launch, lead off, open, start, strike (into);
Near Antonyms
cease, desist, discontinue, halt, knock off, lay off, quit, stop;
abolish, demolish, destroy, exterminate, extinguish, phase out;
Related Words
create, generate, inaugurate, initiate, innovate, invent, originate;
adopt, embrace, take on, take up;
establish, father, found, institute, organize, pioneer, set up, spawn;
Phrases
get going, get to, set about;
Synonym Discussion of commence
begin, commence, start, initiate, inaugurate, usher in mean to take the first step in a course, process, or operation. begin, start, and commence are often interchangeable. begin, opposed to end, is the most general.
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- begin a trip
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- began dancing
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- the work started slowly
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- commence firing
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- commenced a conversation
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- initiated diplomatic contacts
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- the discovery of penicillin inaugurated a new era in medicine
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- ushered in a period of economic decline
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