overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

commence.

To begin, start.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kəˈmɛns/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kəˈmens/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To begin, start.

    intransitive
  2. To begin, start.

    transitive
  3. To begin or start.

    Appalachia · intransitive
    At dawn we'll commence to drive.
  4. To begin to be, or to act as.

    transitive
  5. To take a degree at a university.

    UK · dated · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English commencen, comencen (also as contracted comsen, cumsen), from Anglo-Norman comencer, from Vulgar Latin *cominitiāre, formed from Latin com- + initiō (whence English initiate).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.