COMMANDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does commander mean? 

• COMMANDER (noun)
  The noun COMMANDER has 4 senses:

1. an officer in command of a military unit

2. someone in an official position of authority who can command or control others

3. a commissioned naval officer who ranks above a lieutenant commander and below a captain

4. an officer in the airforce

  Familiarity information: COMMANDER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMMANDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An officer in command of a military unit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

commandant; commander; commanding officer

Hypernyms ("commander" is a kind of...):

military officer; officer (any person in the armed services who holds a position of authority or command)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "commander"):

SACLANT; Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (commanding officer of ACLANT; a general of the United States Army nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the North Atlantic Council)

SACEUR; Supreme Allied Commander Europe (commanding officer of ACE; NATO's senior military commander in Europe)

commander-in-chief; commander in chief; generalissimo (the officer who holds the supreme command)

wing commander ((RAF rank) one who is next below a group captain)

Derivation:

command (be in command of)

command (exercise authoritative control or power over)

commandership (the position or office of commander)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone in an official position of authority who can command or control others

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("commander" is a kind of...):

leader (a person who rules or guides or inspires others)

Derivation:

command (be in command of)

command (exercise authoritative control or power over)

commandership (the position or office of commander)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A commissioned naval officer who ranks above a lieutenant commander and below a captain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("commander" is a kind of...):

commissioned naval officer (a commissioned officer in the navy)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Derivation:

command (be in command of)

command (exercise authoritative control or power over)

commandership (the position or office of commander)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An officer in the airforce

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

air force officer; commander

Hypernyms ("commander" is a kind of...):

man; military man; military personnel; serviceman (someone who serves in the armed forces; a member of a military force)

Derivation:

command (be in command of)

command (exercise authoritative control or power over)

commandership (the position or office of commander)

 Context examples 

I had not been at home above ten days, when Captain William Robinson, a Cornish man, commander of the Hopewell, a stout ship of three hundred tons, came to my house.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“You can tell me when I've worked through that,” says he, looking as fierce as a commander.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Brooke is commander in chief, I am commissary general, the other fellows are staff officers, and you, ladies, are company.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He is only a commander, it is true, made last summer, and these are bad times for getting on, but he has not another fault that I know of.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“By my troth! I think very well of it,” cried the prudent old commander.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All this, with convoying, reconnoitring, and risking one’s own ship in order to gain a knowledge of the enemy’s movements, comes under the duties of the commander of a cruiser.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In this case I found her biography sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea fishes.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It would be sunk into a badge of disgrace; for what can be more unbecoming, or more worthless, than the uniform of a lieutenant, who has been a lieutenant a year or two, and sees others made commanders before him?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I observed among them a Dutchman, who seemed to be of some authority, though he was not commander of either ship.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

You shall be commander of the expedition, and I'll obey blindly, will that satisfy you? said Jo, with a sudden change from perversity to lamblike submission.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)