commission

Borrowed from Old French commission, from Latin commissio (“sending together; commission”), from prefix com- (“with”), + noun of action missio (“sending”), from perfect passive participle missus (“sent”), from the verb mittō (“to send”), + noun of action suffix -io.

• IPA^(key): /kəˈmɪʃən/

• Audio (p)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃən

commission (countable and uncountable, plural commissions)

1. A sending or mission (to do or accomplish something).
2. An official charge or authority to do something, often used of military officers.

   David received his commission after graduating from West Point.

   • Shakespeare

     Let him see our commission.

3. The thing to be done as agent for another.

   I have three commissions for the city.

4. A body or group of people, officially tasked with carrying out a particular function.

   the European Commission; the Electoral Commission; the Federal Communications Commission

   The company's sexual harassment commission made sure that every employee completed the on-line course.

   • Prescott

     A commission was at once appointed to examine into the matter.

5. A fee charged by an agent or broker for carrying out a transaction.

   a reseller's commission

   The real-estate broker charged a four percent commission for their knowledge on bidding for commercial properties; for their intellectual perspective on making a formal offer and the strategy to obtain a mutually satisfying deal with the seller in favour of the buyer.

6. The act of committing (e.g. a crime).

   the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism

   • South

     Every commission of sin introduces into the soul a certain degree of hardness.

• (body of officials): committee, government body

• (act of committing): omission

• (fee charged): brokerage (to a broker), shroffage (to a shroff)

commission (third-person singular simple present commissions, present participle commissioning, simple past and past participle commissioned)

1. (transitive) To send or officially charge someone or some group to do something.

   James Bond was commissioned with recovering the secret documents.

   • 2012, August 1. Owen Gibson in Guardian Unlimited, London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal

     Stanning, who was commissioned from Sandhurst in 2008 and has served in Aghanistan, is not the first solider to bail out the organisers at these Games but will be among the most celebrated.

2. (transitive) To place an order for (often piece of art)

   He commissioned a replica of the Mona Lisa for his living room, but the painter gave up after six months.

3. (transitive) To put into active service

   The aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1944, during WWII.

Borrowed from Latin commissio, commissionem.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.mi.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

commission f (plural commissions)

1. commission (fee charged by an agent or broker for carrying out a transaction)

• Persian: کمیسیون‎ (komisiyon)

• “commission” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).