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Definition of "commencement" []

  • A beginning; a start. (noun)
  • A ceremony at which academic degrees or diplomas are conferred. (noun)
  • The day on which such a ceremony occurs. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "commencement" in a sentence
  • "A warm bath, at the commencement of the disease, is very efficacious; but it must be given at the _commencement_."
  • "An image from inside First Cathedral in Bloomfield, Conn., where a high school commencement is scheduled to be held, shows a shepherd's staff."
  • "I imagine commencement is one of those events that epidemiologists worry about."