commencement

IPA: kʌmˈɛnsmʌnt

The first existence of anything; act or fact of commencing; the beginning.
The day when degrees are conferred by colleges and universities upon students and others.
A graduation ceremony, from a school, college or university. Sometimes before the actual graduation.

Examples of "commencement" in Sentences

Yes, commencement is supposed to be a pleasant day.
In pulling out, Coble said that commencement is for the seniors.
I imagine commencement is one of those events that epidemiologists worry about.
There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches.
A warm bath, at the commencement of the disease, is very efficacious; but it must be given at the _commencement_.
The winner amongst the high schools competing to have the President speak at commencement is Kalamazoo in Michigan!
An image from inside First Cathedral in Bloomfield, Conn., where a high school commencement is scheduled to be held, shows a shepherd's staff.
The Company is committed to the completion of the underground development and near-term commencement of commercial production levels from the underground mine.
Annette had passed a highly successful examination, and was to graduate from the normal school, and as a matter of course, her neighbors wanted to hear Annette "speak her piece" as they called the commencement theme, and also to see how she was going to behave before all "them people."