COMMENCEMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does commencement mean? 

• COMMENCEMENT (noun)
  The noun COMMENCEMENT has 3 senses:

1. the time at which something is supposed to begin

2. an academic exercise in which diplomas are conferred

3. the act of starting something

  Familiarity information: COMMENCEMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMMENCEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The time at which something is supposed to begin

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

beginning; commencement; first; get-go; kickoff; offset; outset; showtime; start; starting time

Context example:

she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her

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

point; point in time (an instant of time)

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

birth (the time when something begins (especially life))

incipience; incipiency (beginning to exist or to be apparent)

starting point; terminus a quo (earliest limiting point)

threshold (the starting point for a new state or experience)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An academic exercise in which diplomas are conferred

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

commencement; commencement ceremony; commencement exercise; graduation; graduation exercise

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

exercise ((usually plural) a ceremony that involves processions and speeches)

Meronyms (parts of "commencement"):

baccalaureate (a farewell sermon to a graduating class at their commencement ceremonies)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of starting something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

beginning; commencement; start

Context example:

he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations

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

change of state (the act of changing something into something different in essential characteristics)

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

activation (making active and effective (as a bomb))

startup (the act of setting in operation)

scrum; scrummage ((rugby) the method of beginning play in which the forwards of each team crouch side by side with locked arms; play starts when the ball is thrown in between them and the two sides compete for possession)

recommencement; resumption (beginning again)

kickoff ((football) a kick from the center of the field to start a football game or to resume it after a score)

jump ball ((basketball) the way play begins or resumes when possession is disputed; an official tosses the ball up between two players who jump in an effort to tap it to a teammate)

installation; installing; installment; instalment (the act of installing something (as equipment))

creation; foundation; founding; initiation; innovation; instauration; institution; introduction; origination (the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new)

inauguration; startup (the act of starting a new operation or practice)

icebreaker (a beginning that relaxes a tense or formal atmosphere)

housing start (the act of starting to construct a house)

groundbreaking; groundbreaking ceremony (the ceremonial breaking of the ground to formally begin a construction project)

first step; initiative; opening; opening move (the first of a series of actions)

face-off ((ice hockey) the method of starting play; a referee drops the puck between two opposing players)

debut; entry; first appearance; introduction; launching; unveiling (the act of beginning something new)

constitution; establishment; formation; organisation; organization (the act of forming or establishing something)

attack; tone-beginning (a decisive manner of beginning a musical tone or phrase)

jumping-off point; point of departure; springboard (a beginning from which an enterprise is launched)

Instance hyponyms:

Creation ((theology) God's act of bringing the universe into existence)

Derivation:

commence (take the first step or steps in carrying out an action)

commence (set in motion, cause to start)

commence (get off the ground)

 Context examples 

Processes that mark, promote, and sustain the commencement of, and commitment to continue, cellular processes involved in the S phase of the cell cycle, such as replication.

(G1 to S Transition Process, NCI Thesaurus)

A blind pouch-like commencement of the colon in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen at the end of the small intestine and the start of the large intestine.

(Cecum, NCI Thesaurus)

You see, at the commencement of an investigation it is something to know that your client is in close contact with some one who, for good or evil, has an exceptional nature.

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

You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Laurie graduates then, and you'd enjoy commencement as something new.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“Pray give us the essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards question you as to those details which seem to me to be most important.”

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

Thus lodged, I was not, at least—at the commencement of the night, cold.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was this that made him protest, at the commencement of our acquaintance, against being called Yonson.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The affair seems absurdly trifling, and yet I dare call nothing trivial when I reflect that some of my most classic cases have had the least promising commencement.

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

Aylward, who stood in the front row of the archers with Simon, big John, and others of the Company, had been criticising the proceedings from the commencement with the ease and freedom of a man who had spent his life under arms and had learned in a hard school to know at a glance the points of a horse and his rider.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)