Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use commanding in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Commanding means tending to give commands, authoritarian. Example: “George Washington, the first president of the United States, and commanding general during its war of independence.”

Examples of commanding by meaning

adjectiveTending to give commands, authoritarian.

  • 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

adjectiveImpressively dominant; very good and impressive.

  • a commanding structure
  • a man with a commanding presence
  • 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

nounThe 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

More sentences with commanding

  • George Washington, the first president of the United States, and commanding general during its war of independence.From the entry washington
  • The enemy was in a splendid ‘posish’ on a high hill commanding the country.From the entry posish
  • He was peremptorily summoned to see the commanding officer.From the entry peremptorily
  • This analysis was reflected in the fates of the respective commanding officers.2023 October 4, Drachinifel, 28:18 from the start, in Battle of the Komandorski Islands - Forced to run, yet still they won, archived from…. From the entry snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
  • A decade ago, the brand was riding high, commanding hundreds of dollars a pair for jeans.2017 July 7, Abha Bhattarai, “$350 jeans are dead. $100 leggings killed them.”, in Washington Post, retrieved 08 Jan 2018. From the entry ride high
  • They had real power now, commanding flash crowds to appear anywhere on issues that touched them.2014, Tabrik C, Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister, →ISBN. From the entry flash crowd
  • In commanding this ritual, agnatic kinsmen outranked maternal and uxorial kinsmen.2007, Leor Halevi, “The Politics of Burial and Tomb Construction”, in Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society, New…. From the entry uxorial
  • Speak in a commanding, godlike voice and a compassionate, goddessy voice.2006, Amber K, True Magick: A Beginner's Guide. From the entry goddessy
  • Now speak in a compassionate, godlike voice and a commanding, goddessy voice.2006, Amber K, True Magick: A Beginner's Guide. From the entry goddessy
  • Will she be remembered more as a character, thoroughly damely and commanding, or for her writings?2005, Rosemary Dinnage, Alone! Alone!: Lives of Some Outsider Women. From the entry damely
  • Who knew what sort of undeadly minions de Piaget was capable of commanding.2001, Lynn Kurland, Stardust of Yesterday. From the entry undeadly
  • Mackenzie made himself a nettlesome burr under Crook's saddle, irritating the commanding general.1995, Terry C. Johnston, A Cold Day in Hell, →ISBN. From the entry nettlesome
  • The Christians in Liehyu are few in number—between fifty and one hundred, the commanding general told me.1954 July, John C. Caldwell, “The Lost Christians of the China Coast”, in Christian Herald, volume 77, number 7, Christian Herald…. From the entry Liehyu
  • With Islamic banking now commanding 30% of Bangladesh's market, the shift from interest-based to asset-backed models is accelerating.2026 April 14, “Bank Asia leads Islamic Banking with 70% deposit–investment ratio, 50% Musharakah portfolio: AMD”, in The Business…. From the entry musharakah
  • Aldrin added a personal touch in commanding the drivers to start their engines, stating, “Gentlemen, energize your groundcraft.”2020 June 20, “Astronaut Doug Hurley to give Monday’s Talladega command from space”, in NASCAR.com, archived from the original on 11 Jul…. From the entry groundcraft
  • Eric Wesley, deputy commanding general of U.S.2019 November 19, “The new era of high-power electromagnetic weapons”, in Military & Aerospace Electronics (article), retrieved 06 Jul 2021. From the entry hyperactive battlefield
  • I turn my eyes skyward and see the gargoylish figures still commanding the open air between the coiling columns of smoke.2010, Matt Cardin, “The New Pauline Corpus”, in Darrell Schweitzer, editor, Cthulhu's Reign, DAW Books, →ISBN. From the entry gargoylish
  • By the age of 16, he was commanding British ships as they hunted American black-marketeers in the Atlantic.2006 August 13, Brian Dillon, “Travelling blind”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry black-marketeer
  • Herrick, the youngest commanding officer in all the destroyers, and says Hotspur was the “boots” of the fleet!2005, Frank Wade, A Midshipman's War, page 115. From the entry boots
  • Very commanding: very much 'end of this nonsensing'.2000, Leon Garfield, Jason Cockcroft, Jack Holborn, page 131. From the entry nonsense
  • Marble statues, Roman noses, tight-lipped commanding mouths.1993, Margaret Atwood, Robber Bride, Virago Press, published 2013, →ISBN, page 48. From the entry august
  • The leader would say a pleading "Hey, fellas," instead of a commanding and enforcing "Ach-tung!" So I unjoined the Boy Scouts.1990, Kurt Gabel, William C. Mitchell, The Making of a Paratrooper. From the entry unjoin
  • Here on the north bank sat the city of Chao-ch'ing ("Establish-Fortune"), a Chinese Vicksburg, commanding the river route to Canton.1985, Steven W. Mosher, Journey To The Forbidden China, Collier Macmillan, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 24. From the entry Chao-ch'ing
  • If you say you have insurance, and then don't, why shouldn't the commanding general recommend you for a general court martial?1984, The Marine Corps Gazette, page 25. From the entry under hack
  • Thus I met Captain Chang Yi Ming, commanding officer of the tiny guerrilla forces of Free China on Tungting Island.1955, John C. Caldwell, Still the Rice Grows Green, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 10. From the entry Free China
  • The black-moustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner.1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, page 6. From the entry moustachio'd
  • Such inculpation of a commanding general is a novel argument in antiquity, and unusual even in modern times.1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VI. Orestea. I: Agamemnon”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 165. From the entry inculpation
  • Outside of patent leathers and specialties, I know of no other types of shoe leathers which are commanding replacement costs today.1922, Boot and Shoe Recorder: The Magazine of Fashion Footwear, volume 81, Philadelphia, Pa.: King Publications (a subsidiary of Chilton…. From the entry shoe-leather
  • The dead woman had not the gift of commanding love.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 36. From the entry command
  • If those orders are not strictly complied with, the officer commanding the guard will be made answerable for the watchcoat.1913 [1758], unknown British Army officer, quotee, “Manuscripts of M.L.S. Clements, Esq., preserved at Ashfield Lodge, Cootehill, County…. From the entry watchcoat
  • In her early forties, her grey hair cropped and brushed forward Soviet-style, her voice husky and commanding, she stands and offers her hand.2011, David Nicholls, One Day, Hachette UK, →ISBN. From the entry Woolfish
  • With the presidential debates in the books and a commanding lead in the polls, Barack Obama appears to be coasting toward history.2008 October 17, Alex Altman, “The Bradley Effect”, in Time. From the entry in the books
  • With the guard ship Shubrick gone, the commanding officer of Alcatraz assumed guard duty to make sure that no hostile foreign warships entered the bay.2007, C. Douglas Kroll, "Friends in Peace and War": The Russian Navy's Landmark Visit to Civil War San Francisco, page 67. From the entry guard ship
  • Situated outside the mouth of the Min River, the Mazu Islands form the northern anchor of the offshore defence line commanding the Min River.2000 May, Keyuan Zou, “Redefining the Legal I Status of the Taiwan Strait”, in The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, volume…. From the entry Mazu
  • Boxer drills were openly conducted in the vicinity of Paoting until April, when an order came through commanding the military to train the Boxers.1966, James E. Sheridan, Chinese Warlord: The Career of Feng Yü-hsiang, Stanford, Cali.: Stanford University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 34. From the entry Paoting

Meaning of commanding

  1. adjective Tending to give commands, authoritarian.
  2. adjective Impressively dominant; very good and impressive.
  3. adjective Dominating from above, giving a wide view (of a place or position).

Full definition of commanding

Questions about commanding in a sentence

How do you use commanding in a sentence?
Commanding is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “George Washington, the first president of the United States, and commanding general during its war of independence.”
What is a short sentence with commanding?
“a commanding structure”
What does commanding mean?
Commanding means tending to give commands, authoritarian.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: commanding (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use commanding in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/commanding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.