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:
Chaos erupted, sleeping soldiers were awakened and some ended up designated as dead, the Danish commander said with evident satisfaction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Ch Supt Critchley, district commander for Bolton, said the shopping centre sighting formed an important part of the investigation.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Gen. John Shaw, who was deputy commander of U.S.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Car radios were still uncommon, but one afternoon, the airborne commander spent 20 minutes chewing out a Sunday driver he saw weaving and dodging through a traffic jam in Queens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Through her connections in the Soviet government, she managed to get Stalin to approve her position as the commander of a new long-distance bombing regiment.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
In his most draconian move yet, the Pentagon polygraphed some 50 high-ranking military officers and civilian officials on the Joint Staff, which coordinates operations, policy and war plans with combatant commanders worldwide.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
A former senior Navy officer and a retired Navy operations officer told me that past commanders have occasionally filed statements warning of risk—similar to the non-concur notes.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
Like many in town, Deyres suspects regional fire commanders sacrificed Le Porge to save houses of the wealthy nearby on the Cap Ferret sandbar peninsula: “I’m not afraid to say it: We were abandoned.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Through firsthand accounts from military commanders, government officials, intelligence personnel and Marines who were on the ground, WSJ Opinion’s new documentary, “The Path to Zero,” traces the decisions that set the withdrawal in motion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
“Do you boys know why your commanders gave you up to these civilians?”
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
Definitions 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.
