commencement

Pronunciation: /kəˈmɛnsmənt/

The English word “commencement” has 3 meanings listed here.

noun

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.

From French commencement; analyzable as commence + -ment.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.