Command

How to spell command

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce command

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does command mean?

1. verbTo give an authoritative order, or to have control over people or resources.
2. nounAn authoritative order, or the authority and control held by someone.

Command in a sentence

• verb

  The general can command thousands of troops from a single base.

• noun

  The troops moved forward at the colonel's command.

• verb

  A senior surgeon will command the operating team during the procedure.

• noun

  She took command of the project after the previous lead resigned.

Where does command come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from the Old French comander, meaning 'to order' or 'to entrust', which came in turn from the Latin commandare. The Latin verb was built from the prefix com-, used here as an intensifier, joined to mandare, meaning 'to entrust' or 'to commit to someone'. That mandare itself is thought to combine manus, the Latin for 'hand', with dare, 'to give', so the literal idea was of placing something into another person's hand. English adopted the word in the 1200s, first for the giving of authoritative orders, and the sense of being in control or having something at one's disposal grew naturally from there. The same mandare root survives in everyday relatives such as 'mandate' and 'demand', which is a useful reminder that command keeps a single m and a single c.

How the word is built

• com- (with, together; intensive)
• mand (from Latin mandare: to order, entrust)