intransitive verb. To begin; start. synonym: begin.

intransitive verb. To enter upon or have a beginning; start.

To come into existence; take rise or origin; first have existence; begin to be.

To enter a new state or assume a new character; begin to be (something different); turn to be or become.

To take a degree, or the first degree, in a university or college. See commencement.

To cause to begin to be; perform the first act of; enter upon; begin: as, to commence operations; to commence a suit, action, or process in law.

Synonyms Commence, Begin. In all ordinary uses commence is exactly synonymous with begin, which, as a purely English word, is nearly always preferable, but more especially before another verb in the infinitive.

transitive verb. To enter upon; to begin; to perform the first act of.

intransitive verb. To have a beginning or origin; to originate; to start; to begin.

intransitive verb. To begin to be, or to act as.

intransitive verb. To take a degree at a university.

verb. To begin, start.

verb. get off the ground

verb. set in motion, cause to start

verb. take the first step or steps in carrying out an action

"Nevertheless, his book carries in it a certain large suggestion; it contains many excellent observations; its tone is unexceptionable; the style is firm and clear, though heavy and disfigured by such intolerable barbarisms as "commence to" walk, talk, or the like, -- the use of the infinitive instead of the participle after _commence_."

cease  

commencement  

commenced  commencing  

attack  auspicate  bestir oneself  break-in  come on  

Spence  cents  commonsense  condense  defence  

______i  afree  alongshore  autobiographic  bone-breaking  

arise  begin  begin  blast away  blast off  

commenced  commences  commencing