commissioner

noun com·mis·sion·er \ kə-ˈmi-sh(ə-)nər \

Updated on: 10 Apr 2018

Definition of commissioner

: a person with a commission: such as

a : a member of a commission

b : the representative of the governmental authority in a district, province, or other unit often having both judicial and administrative powers

c : the officer in charge of a department or bureau of the public service

d : the administrative head of a professional sport

—

commissionership

play \kə-ˈmi-sh(ə-)nər-ˌship\ noun

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See commissioner defined for kids

Examples of commissioner in a Sentence

The baseball commissioner decided to suspend the players for 10 games.

Recent Examples of commissioner from the Web

The council was rife with conflicts of interest: Many of its commissioners worked as executives at Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute, schools accredited by the agency.

— danielle douglas-gabriel, Washington Post, "Betsy DeVos to reconsider the fate of ousted for-profit college accreditor," 4 Apr. 2018
The Postal Regulatory Commission, which sets rates, has one vacant seat among its five commissioners, who are named by the president.

— bloomberg, latimes.com, "Amazon isn't killing the post office. And Trump's ability to go after the online giant has limits," 30 Mar. 2018
Your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday mentioned San Antonio and Montreal when discussing potential expansion cities for the sport.

— brian t. smith, Houston Chronicle, "If MLB expands, it knows cities like San Antonio, Montreal interested," 29 Mar. 2018
One of the most outspoken critics is Chris Monzel, the lone Republican on the county’s board of commissioners.

— sharon coolidge, Cincinnati.com, "Cranley and Portune's deal to fix MSD (and your sewer bill) is in trouble. Here's why.," 28 Mar. 2018
The Arena Football League appointed Randall Boe as its next commissioner and Ron Jaworski to be chairman of the executive committee.

— BostonGlobe.com, "Giants expect Odell Beckham Jr. to attend workouts in April," 27 Mar. 2018
He was shot dead in 2015 trying to stop a robbery at a North Philadelphia GameStop, an action his commissioner and the mayor described as heroic.

— chris palmer, Philly.com, "Slain Philly cop's family: DA Larry Krasner is 'favoring the criminals'," 23 Mar. 2018
Commissioner Richard Ranzau, a frequent critic of his fellow commissioner, laid a hand on his shoulder.

— Fox News, "Atheists challenge Kansas county over prayer before meetings," 14 Mar. 2018
As first reported by TMZ Sports, the league, which was founded by the rapper Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, an entertainment industry executive, fired its commissioner, with Ice Cube taking over on an interim basis.

— benjamin hoffman, New York Times, "Ice Cube Fires Big3 League’s Commissioner Amid Scandal," 13 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'commissioner.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of commissioner

Middle English, "person empowered to carry out defined duties," borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Medieval Latin commissiōnārius, from commissiōn-, commissiō ¹commission + Latin -ārius ¹-ary

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First Known Use: 15th century

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COMMISSIONER Defined for English Language Learners

commissioner

noun

Definition of commissioner for English Language Learners

: a member of a commission : one of a group of people who have been given the official job of finding information about something or controlling something
: an official who is in charge of a government department or part of a government department
: an official who is in charge of a major professional sport (such as baseball, football, or hockey)