commodore
Americannoun
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Navy. a grade of flag officer next in rank below a rear admiral.
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British Navy. an officer in temporary command of a squadron, sometimes over a captain on the same ship.
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Navy. the senior captain when two or more ships of war are cruising in company.
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(in the U.S. Navy and Merchant Marine) the officer in command of a convoy.
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the senior captain of a line of merchant vessels.
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the president or head of a yacht club or boat club.
noun
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a naval rank junior to rear admiral and senior to captain
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the senior captain of a shipping line
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the officer in command of a convoy of merchant ships
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the senior flag office of a yacht or boat club
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of commodore
1685–95; earlier commandore, perhaps < Dutch komandeur < French commandeur commander
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:
Three years later she gladly accepted her nomination as rear commodore.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
As yachts pass the beach, they are spreading rose petals on the ocean "out of respect for the tragic loss of life", said Sam Haynes, commodore of race organiser, the Cruising Yacht Club of Sydney.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
He also lost a series of UK military titles including colonel of the Grenadier Guards, honorary air commodore of RAF Lossiemouth and colonel-in-chief of the Royal Irish Regiment.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2025
Additionally, the club lost cherished photographs of every past commodore, a significant position within a yacht club.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2023
The cable was from Captain Herrick, commodore of the Maddox and Turner Joy.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
Members said they didn’t know if anyone had digitized the images of the commodores or of the club’s founders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2023
The reunion between American Magic and the New York Yacht Club came after the club changed commodores.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
The U.S. used the flag-raising tradition to indicate the rank of fleet commanders, squadron commanders and commodores, and added others during the Civil War.
From Time ● Oct. 13, 2017
No. 13 Montana Grizzlies Whether this is a fair fight depends on whether the commodores carry guns.
From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2012
“I would have never guessed,” Stockdale would say many years later, “that commodores in charge on the scene of action are sometimes not allowed to blow the whistle on a screwup.”
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
