commandment
part of speech
noun (a commandment, commandments)
meaning for a pupil
1) (Bible) A commandment is a rule given by God; the Ten Commandments are rules God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, such as "Do not steal" and "Honour your father and your mother". tree →
2) (formal) A commandment is any strong rule or order. tree →
sense in the lessons
In RE and Sunday school children learn the Ten Commandments, carved on two stone tablets; Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself. In everyday jokes people speak of "the eleventh commandment" for a family rule. Phrases: the Ten Commandments, keep the commandments, break a commandment, the greatest commandment.
examples
- Moses came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments. tree →
- "You shall not steal" is one of the commandments. tree →
- Jesus said, "Love one another" was a new commandment. tree →
- Our class made a poster of the Ten Commandments. tree →
- Mum's eleventh commandment is "Thou shalt not leave wet towels on the floor." tree →
- Keeping the commandments is hard sometimes. tree →
- The Caliph's commandment fell upon me like a thunderbolt. tree →
note
Countable; plural commandments. Spelling: command + ment (two m's after the co). Old-style "thou shalt" means "you shall". A command is any order; a commandment is usually a solemn, lasting rule.
In the corpora
- God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, written on two stone tablets.
- The first commandments are about loving God, and the rest about loving other people.
- Christians believe God is truthful and wants people to be honest too; one of the Ten Commandments forbids lying about others.
- "You shall not steal" is one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:15).
- Exodus is one of the five books of the Torah, so Jews and Christians share the Ten Commandments.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «commandment» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.