Word.ws English Dictionary

commanding

Syllables: com·mand·ingUK/kəˈmɑːndɪŋ//kəˈmændɪŋ/

commanding adjective: tending to give commands, authoritarian. Also the present participle and gerund of command.

Adjective

commanding (comparative more commanding, superlative most commanding)

  1. Tending to give commands, authoritarian.
    • Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  2. Impressively dominant; very good and impressive.
    • a commanding structure
    • a man with a commanding presence
  3. Dominating from above, giving a wide view (of a place or position)
    • On the top floor is the lever frame where signalmen are afforded an uninterrupted and commanding view of the junction below, and of Shrewsbury station's five working platforms.2018, Rail, issue 857, July 18-July 31, article on Severn Bridge Junction signal box at Shrewsbury

Noun

commanding (plural commandings)

  1. The act of giving a command.
    • God could then have dispelled their ignorance by revealing to them that He had issued those commands; the fact of the occurrence of the earlier commandings would be the content of the revelation.2006, William E. Mann, Augustine's Confessions, page 172

Also used as

commanding is also the present participle and gerund of command.

commanding meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

commanding in Tamil

கட்டளையிடுவது

commanding in Urdu

کمانڈنگ

commanding in Bengali

কমান্ডিং

commanding in Telugu

కమాండింగ్
More languagesFewer languages
commanding in Malayalam
കമാൻഡിംഗ്, കമാൻഡിങ്, കമാൻഡ് ചെയ്യുന്നു
commanding in Kannada
ಆಜ್ಞಾಪಿಸುವುದು, ಕಮಾಂಡಿಂಗ್, ಆಜ್ಞಾಪಿಸುವಿಕೆ
commanding in Punjabi
ਕਮਾਂਡਿੰਗ
commanding in Gujarati
કમાન્ડિંગ
commanding in Odia
କମାଣ୍ଡିଂ
commanding in Nepali
कमान्डिङ, कमान्डिंग

Examples of commanding in a sentence

  • Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • Claire Chase, a prominent flutist and educator, described her as a “supernova,” praising her collaborative and commanding style.2023 January 18, Javier C. Hernández, “A Conductor on a Mission to Help Ukraine”, in The New York Times:
  • Pierre Boulez, one of the most commanding musicians of the past century, must have been asked countless times, before his death in 2016, what he thought his legacy might be.2023 March 23, David Allen, “‘It Needs You’: The Human Side to Boulez’s Demanding Music”, in The New York Times:

All 40 example sentences with commanding

Synonyms of commanding

Forms of commanding

Adjective
comparativemore commanding
superlativemost commanding
Noun
pluralcommandings

Words formed from commanding

Phrases with commanding

Questions about commanding

What does commanding mean?
Commanding means tending to give commands, authoritarian.
What is commanding in Tamil?
Commanding in Tamil is கட்டளையிடுவது. See Commanding meaning in Tamil.
How do you use commanding in a sentence?
Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
What part of speech is commanding?
Commanding can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce commanding?
Commanding is pronounced /kəˈmændɪŋ/ (US).

Words near commanding in the dictionary

  1. commandership
  2. commanderships
  3. commandery
  4. commandest
  5. commandeth
  6. commanding
  7. commanding general
  8. commanding generals
  9. commanding heights
  10. commanding officer
  11. commanding officers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: commanding (page history and authors); commanding (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); commanding (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-command.ogg.

Cite this entry: “commanding.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/commanding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.