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Glite Dictionary
🫡 A group leader 🎖️ A military rank 🃏 A game leader
commander

commander

1 8.6
In the card game Magic: The Gathering, the special creature card chosen to lead a Commander deck
  • noun
  • /kəˈmændər/
  • Jargon
: comandante
  • She chose a unique commander for her Magic deck, which allows for creative gameplay.
  • commander in chief
  • tank commander
  • a former commander

And I got to a good debt and the deck commander at the time was, was great.

Examples

  • The commander card I selected has special abilities that influence how I build my deck.

  • When our commanders sent the two of us to help Danny clean up the city, they attached a price.

    Safe (2012)

  • Anyone who's tried to build a mono-red Commander deck knows exactly what I'm talking about.

    Blog text (7)

  • The commander referenced the rulebook and assured the director that he would make the marine return it.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Sometimes you're a babysitter, and sometimes you're a commander in the thick of battle.

    Blog text (19)

  • The Magic: The Gathering Commander decks will each be three "wedge" colors with corresponding new commanders.

    Blog text (3)

  • In the game Magic: The Gathering, my commander is a powerful dragon that dictates my strategy.

Compounds

commander in chief
  • Formal
145 4.9

The person with highest authority over a country's armed forces

lieutenant commander
  • Specialized
70 6.9

A Navy or Coast Guard officer who is above lieutenant and below commander

commander-in-chief
  • Formal
54 4.6

The senior military officer who leads a country's armed forces

wing commander
  • UK
6 8.4

A senior Royal Air Force officer who is above a squadron leader and below a group captain

naval commander
  • Specialized
4 6.0

A senior navy officer who leads a fleet of warships

Supreme Allied Commander Europe
  • Formal
1 8.6

Senior military leader in Europe for NATO who is in charge of all forces there

Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic
  • Formal
9.9

A person who is the top military leader of NATO in the North Atlantic region

Surface Forms

commander singular
commanders plural

Morphology

commander = command (semi-transparent) = command + er

Morphologically regular (agentive), but the game-specific usage adds specialized rules and conventions that go beyond the basic 'person who commands' sense.

Etymology

The word commander comes from the Latin parts com- ('with') and mandare ('to order' or 'to entrust'), the same root as command. So in the card game a commander is the leader card you build your deck around and it sets special rules for how you play.