Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use commence in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Commence means to begin, start. Example: “At dawn we'll commence to drive.”

Examples of commence by meaning

verbTo begin, start.

  • Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

verbTo begin, start.

  • The speeches commenced three days of workshops, seminars, and cultural activities.1976 December 11, Thom Willenbecher, quoting Jean O'Leary, “Women's Caucus Quits Gay Academic Union”, in Gay Community News, volume 4...

verbTo begin or start.

  • At dawn we'll commence to drive.

More sentences with commence

  • Extensive media coverage of the issue led the ombudsman to commence an own motion investigation.From the entry own motion
  • The ship was laid up until repairs could commence.From the entry laid up
  • The Confederate works were visible and at 5:08 a.m., Seymour ordered the batteries to commence firing.2021, Stephen R. Wise, “To Capture an Island: Amphibious Operations in the Department of the South, 1861–1863”, in Theodore P. Savas…. From the entry unmask
  • She and her group did not disperse even after the katha had commenced.2015, Tridip Suhrud, translating Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, Sarasvatichandra I, Orient BlackSwan 2015, p. 300. From the entry katha
  • So wait until they've gone, make a cup of tea and then let the mooching commence.2007 August 10, Guy Browning, “How to … mooch about”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry mooch
  • The Festival of Imbolc commences on February eve, or January 31, and usually concludes on February 2.2007, Judy Ann Nock, “Season Three: Imbolc: First Light in the Dark of Winter”, in The Provenance Press Guide to the Wiccan Year: Spells…. From the entry Imbolc
  • Many mothers sever the strings with apparent ambivalence, and this feat is not commenced with ease.1971, Harry F. Harlow, James L. McGaugh, Richard F. Thompson, chapter 3, in Psychology, San Francisco: Albion, page 52. From the entry separational
  • But it was a different matter altogether when the blasting of the tunnel was commenced.1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 754. From the entry blasting
  • Then he wrenched off the top of a box, and commenced to cram chewing-gum into his mouth.1940 April 27, Max Stafford, “Speed on the Sands”, in Illustrated Leicester Chronicle, page 18, column 3. From the entry chewing-gum
  • The pack commenced to work back and forth along the ridge.1911, Zane Grey, “VI. Trails”, in The Young Lion Hunter, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, →OL, page 63. From the entry bow-wow
  • Both the pyxie and the trailing arbutus commence to bloom in March.1905, Mary Mapes Dodge, St. Nicholas, page 462. From the entry pyxie
  • Miss Odyssea Hawk commenced school again, after a vacation of two weeks.1902 January 16, “Kingery”, in J[ohn] R[obert] Connelly, editor, The Free Press, volume XIII, number 11, Colby, Kan., →OCLC, page [5]…. From the entry Odyssea
  • A commences a court proceeding against B seeking damages.2024, Parliament of Singapore, “Administration of Justice (Protection) (Amendment) Act 2024”, in Republic of Singapore Government Gazette…. From the entry contempt of court
  • HS2 Ltd has commenced its search for a supplier of platform edge doors at Old Oak Common and Interchange stations.2023 August 9, “Network News: Search for platform edge doors supplier”, in RAIL, number 989, page 19. From the entry platform edge door
  • When does the building of the Death Star commence?2016 December 8, TMack, “Optimistic pink stuff.”, in uk.rec.sheds (Usenet), archived from the original on 31 Dec 2025. From the entry trequadragintillion
  • Whether they figured immediate selection for gravedom, by pointing skeletal finger, was about to commence, or what, I don't know.2009, Harry Stephen Keeler, Hazel Goodwin Keeler, The Circus Stealers. From the entry gravedom
  • Before commencing the engine stripdown itself, ensure that you have the correct workshop manual for your particular machine.2004, Mick Walker, Moto Guzzi Twins Restoration, page 54. From the entry stripdown
  • Tomorrow, 9 a.m., commence festival of Shovuos at 9:05 p.m.1985 May 24, “Synagogue services”, in Staten Island Advance, volume 100, number 21,617, Staten Island, N.Y.: Advance Publications, →OCLC…. From the entry Shovuos
  • He tapped out the dottle on the deck, locked the steering oar in position, and commenced repacking his pipe.1984, Alan Dean Foster, The Hour of the Gate, page 89. From the entry dottle
  • He commenced to say his prayers mechanically.1952 September 1, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 65. From the entry mechanically
  • The cocoon collectors will commence their operations on October 28.1935 October, “Constructive Economic Developments in October”, in Economic Statistics Monthly, volume 2, number 10, page 5. From the entry Tehtsing
  • We will commence to flam the notes now, as most of them are flammed when you play a March.1923, Edward B. Straight, The Straight System of Modern Drumming: The "Natural Way" to Play Drums, page 10. From the entry flam
  • So I commenced to yell, And old man Pease he hugged his knees and gaffled to his pail.1916, Holman Day, Up in Maine: Stories of Yankee Life Told in Verse, page 189. From the entry gaffle
  • They then commenced withing me around the shoulders, saying it would have a better effect than to whip the horse.1913, Richard Nye Price, Holston Methodism, volume 4, page 494. From the entry withe
  • Brently, and left to commence his investigation.1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Wreck of the ‘Lady Alice’”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt…. From the entry aye aye, sir
  • The sewer was then stanked off at both sides of the passage by brickwork and its reconstruction commenced.1912, W. Hemming Jones, “The Brocklebank Dock Improvements on the Mersey Dock Estate”, in Transactions of the Liverpool Engineering…. From the entry stank
  • A squad of soldiers ordered them to disperse but instead of doing so they commenced throwing ice and rocks.1912, The New England magazine, volume 47. From the entry squad
  • Bondurant, expects that he will be able to commence the work of stemming shortly after the new year.1901 April 12, “District Reports”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 3, page 68. From the entry stemmery
  • In commencing coverage with the outbreak of the First World War, it begins where much historical discussion of Britain and Latin America traditionally finished.2020, Thomas C. Mills, Rory M. Miller, “Introduction”, in Thomas C. Mills, Rory M. Miller, editors, Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony…. From the entry short twentieth century
  • A root cannot form a phonological or a grammatical word on its own; it commences a word and is followed by bound morphemes (suffixes).2020 November 5, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon, Nathan M. White, Phonological Word and Grammatical Word: A Cross-Linguistic…. From the entry grammatical word
  • A research program found that the great drying commenced about six million years ago during the Messinian age, the last stage of the Miocene.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 129. From the entry Messinian salinity crisis
  • "We present to you, the jug band!" We pulled out straw hats, banjos, jugs, horrible buck-toothed dentures, and commenced to pickin' and grinnin'.2004, Adam Copeland, Adam Copeland on Edge, →ISBN. From the entry jug band
  • Thus do the Dilbertian wars commence.2000, Rick Fleeter, The Logic of Microspace, page 291. From the entry Dilbertian
  • Got up pretty early, ate a soon breakfast, had the sulky and was about to start to Newtown when it commenced raining..1997, Dorothy Stanaland Samuel, Taliaferro Leslie Samuel, The Samuell/Samuel Families of Tidewater Virginia, page 148. From the entry soon
  • Under the Transport Bill now before Parliament, the Board's commencing debt was to be divided into a suspended debt and an interest-bearing debt.1962 April, “Talking of Trains: The tasks of the Railways Board”, in Modern Railways, page 219. From the entry interest-bearing
  • The average ball player can become an effective switch hitter only if he has switched hit from the time he commenced playing.1961, National Association of Basketball Coaches of the United States, American Football Coaches Association, Athletic Journal, volume 46…. From the entry switch-hitter
  • He uses a round slab of clay, which he places on top of the chum and commences to thump down around the sides.1920, The South African Journal of Industries, volume 3, part 2, p. 820. From the entry chum

Meaning of commence

  1. verb To begin, start.
  2. verb To begin or start.
  3. verb To begin to be, or to act as.

Full definition of commence

Questions about commence in a sentence

How do you use commence in a sentence?
Commence is used as a verb. For example: “At dawn we'll commence to drive.”
What is a short sentence with commence?
“At dawn we'll commence to drive.”
What does commence mean?
Commence means to begin, start.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: commence (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.

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