commissioner
Americannoun
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commissioners
plural
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a person commissioned to act officially; member of a commission.
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a government official or representative in charge of a department or district.
the police commissioner; the commissioner of a colony.
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an official chosen by an athletic association to exercise broad administrative or judicial authority.
the baseball commissioner.
noun
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a person authorized to perform certain tasks or endowed with certain powers
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government
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any of several types of civil servant
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an ombudsman See also Health Service Commissioner Parliamentary Commissioner
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a member of a commission
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of commissioner
1400–50; late Middle English < Anglo-French. See commission, -er 2
Explanation
The noun commissioner refers to someone in charge of a formal group or organization, such as a police commissioner or a baseball commissioner. As you might guess, commissioner is related to commission, which describes a group that carries out a particular function. Commissioner can describe an official who directs or regulates a commission, or it can be that person's title. For example, if Theodore Young is the housing commissioner, in formal situations you’d refer to him as Commissioner Young.
Vocabulary lists containing commissioner
Things Fall Apart
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The Articles of Confederation (1777)
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The Dawes Act
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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:
Another factor is President Donald Trump’s nomination on Wednesday afternoon of a new Food and Drug Administration commissioner, which grants some certainty to investors who have been unsure about the future direction of the regulator.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is pressing for the case to be wrapped up before the regular season begins in October.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Lavery was sacked from his role as a human right commissioner last week.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Mr. Bockino shares juicy emails in 2014 between Adam Silver, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, and Steve Lipscomb, a law-school chum and the founder of the World Poker Tour.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Dad spotted the county commissioner who backed him for Charley Burns’s job.
From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor
In July, county commissioners placed a moratorium on data-center construction, halting the project for six months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
A majority of the commissioners, including me, were appointed by December 2023 and got to work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
“No one will be seeing higher or lower premiums for their automobile policies based on this ruling,” said Sanchez, who noted several previous commissioners didn’t change the regulation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Seven of the 10 commissioners who served since 2016 accepted tickets worth more than $260,000, according to a ProPublica analysis of ethics disclosures.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
That’s why the county commissioners want Dad onstage with them at the meeting tonight.
From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor
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.
