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:
Morale aboard a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier already is difficult to maintain without a record-breaking stint, said Julie Roland, a retired veteran Navy lieutenant commander who worked briefly on the USS Lincoln.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
But wars inevitably cost those who fight in them; ideally, the commander in chief would start them only after carefully weighing those costs.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Assad, who fled to exile in Russia after he was pushed from power in December 2024, was convicted in absentia along with his brother Maher, who was an important military commander in the former regime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
In Syria's first post-Assad parliament, women lawmakers stand out more for their diversity than their numbers: a famous actress, a Christian engineer, a Kurdish leader and the widow of a hardline Islamist commander.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
It was a contrast with how they’d felt about their previous commander.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Not all of those who are trained want to stay back, she said, but those that do receive orders from trained crew commanders, including on when it's time to leave.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
He is now warning Diaz and other commanders that it’s time to surrender.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
A key part of this year's Han Kuang exercise is decentralising command and control to enable commanders and officers on the battlefield to make operational decisions without waiting for orders.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
Seeing no evil are legions of crooked operators — customs inspectors, tax agents, military commanders, among other enablers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Blue Team’s commanders were also given a tool called Effects-Based Operations, which directed them to think beyond the conventional military method of targeting and destroying an adversary’s military assets.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
