Word.ws English Dictionary

commendatory

commendatory adjective: serving to commend or compliment; complimentary.

Adjective

commendatory (comparative more commendatory, superlative most commendatory)

  1. Serving to commend or compliment; complimentary.
    • In the yeare of our Lorde .786. […] Pope Adrian sent two Lega[ts into] Englande […] with letters commendatory vnto Offa king of Mercia […]1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irlande, London: John Hunne, The Historie of England, Kinewulfe, p. 198
    • Pompey had made a Law also, to forbid the custom of making commendatory Orations, on behalf of those that were accused:1693, “The Life of Cato the Younger”, in Stephen Waller, transl., The Fourth Volume of Plutarch’s Lives, London: Jacob Tonson, page 624
  2. Holding a benefice in commendam.
    • a commendatory bishop
    • The bishoprics, and the great commendatory abbies, were, with few exceptions, held by that order.1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, London: J. Dodsley, page 164

Noun

commendatory (plural commendatories)

  1. (obsolete) That which commends; a commendation; eulogy.
    • To him he adheres, resigns the whole ware-house of his religion, with all the locks and keyes into his custody; and indeed makes the very person of that man his religion; esteems his associating with him a sufficient evidence and commendatory of his own piety.1644, John Milton, Areopagitica, London, page 27
    • […] what ever did but bear upon it the Image of God and the Superscription of the Holy Jesus, would need no other Commendatories to our Affection, but would upon that alone account be infinitely dear and pretious to us.1674, John Sharp, The things that make for peace delivered in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the 23 of August...

Forms of commendatory

Adjective
comparativemore commendatory
superlativemost commendatory
Noun
pluralcommendatories

Origin of commendatory

From commend + -atory.

Words formed from commendatory

Questions about commendatory

What does commendatory mean?
Commendatory means serving to commend or compliment; complimentary.
What part of speech is commendatory?
Commendatory can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near commendatory in the dictionary

  1. commendations
  2. commendator
  3. commendatories
  4. commendatorily
  5. commendators
  6. commendatory
  7. commended
  8. commendee
  9. commendees
  10. commender
  11. commenders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: commendatory (page history and authors). 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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