commander
Americannoun
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commanders
plural
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a person who commands.
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a person who exercises authority; chief officer; leader.
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the commissioned officer in command of a military unit.
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U.S. Navy. an officer ranking below a captain and above a lieutenant commander.
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a police officer in charge of a precinct or other unit.
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the chief officer of a commandery in the medieval orders of Knights Hospitalers, Knights Templars, and others.
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a member of one of the higher classes or ranks in certain modern fraternal orders, as in the Knights Templars.
noun
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an officer in command of a military formation or operation
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a naval commissioned rank junior to captain but senior to lieutenant commander
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the second in command of larger British warships
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someone who holds authority
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a high-ranking member of some knightly or fraternal orders
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an officer responsible for a district of the Metropolitan Police in London
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history the administrator of a house, priory, or landed estate of a medieval religious order
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of commander
1250–1300; Middle English < Old French comandere, equivalent to comand ( er ) to command + -ere < Latin -ātōr- -ator
Explanation
A commander is the person in charge, particularly in the military. If you're in the Navy, your commander gives directions that you're expected to follow. A commander does exactly what it sounds like: she issues instructions or commands and assumes they'll be obeyed. Although there are other kinds of commanders, you're most likely to find the word describing a military official. The President of the United States is considered the "Commander-in-Chief" of the US Armed Forces. The word comes from the Old French comander, "to order."
Vocabulary lists containing commander
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for December 18–December 24, 2021
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Scanning the room, the commander settled his gaze on Stupnikov.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
The disruptions so upset her neighbor Richard Corriea, a retired San Francisco police commander, that he helped lead the effort to restore the route.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Her father, a military commander, is killed by the British Army during the French Revolutionary Wars of the late 18th century, and her mother dies during childbirth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
The commander tells us about 500 Houthi fighters remain on high ground overlooking a strategic maritime corridor – Bab al-Mandab – connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
It’s even possible that some of the other pilots—including Lilya Litvyak, Katya Budanova, and Raisa Belyaeva—may have gone behind Tamara’s back to ask for a new commander.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
His job was ensuring commanders had smooth communication with their units and access to feeds from reconnaissance drones and surveillance cameras.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
According to Ukrainian commanders, their year-long campaign has freed 16 settlements from Russian occupation.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
Incident commanders also lost the confidence of on-the-ground personnel who were, at times, forced to act without the approval of commanders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Thaci was facing trial alongside three former commanders of the KLA who faced similar charges.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
The two other planes were flown and navigated by the regiment’s squadron commanders.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
