Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
commence (verb)transitive verb
intransitive verb
to enter upon - begin commence proceedings
1.
to have or make a beginning - start the meeting will commence soon
2.
chiefly British to a degree at a university - take begin
Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus
commence (verb)1.
to take the first step in (a process or course of action)
SYNONIMS:
commence, embark (on upon), enter (into upon), fall (to), get off, kick off, launch, lead off, open, start, strike (into)RELATED WORDS:
create, generate, inaugurate, initiate, innovate, invent, originate; adopt, embrace, take on, take up; establish, father, found, institute, organize, pioneer, set up, spawn; get around (to), get down (to), get round (to)NEAR ANTONYMS:
cease, desist, discontinue, halt, knock off, lay off, quit, stop; close, complete; abandon, forsake, leave; abolish, demolish, destroy, exterminate, extinguish, phase out2.
to come into existence
SYNONIMS:
actualize, appear, arise, break, commence, dawn, engender, form, materialize, originate, set in, spring, startRELATED WORDS:
be, breathe, exist, live, subsist; arrive, come on, emerge; coalesce, cohere, shape (up); continue, endure, last, persist, surviveNEAR ANTONYMS:
conclude, desist, discontinue, finish, halt, quit, terminate; disappear, dissolve, evaporate, vanish; depart, die, expire, pass away, perish