commissioning
- 1The process of confirming that all systems and components of a major piece of equipment, a process, or a building are designed, installed, and tested to meet the owner's operational requirements.
Like a dress rehearsal before opening night: every part is checked under real conditions before it goes live.
The commissioning of the power plant verified that every subsystem met the client's specifications.
Engineers documented each step of commissioning to confirm the heating and cooling systems performed as designed.
Note
Engineers use it for the last stage between building something and relying on it. Howard Johnston, writing in RAIL in 2023, describes a train converted into a test bed for the commissioning of a European rail traffic-management system. Navies use the same noun for a ship's entry into service, an event held on a set date. The plural, commissionings, counts separate projects or ceremonies.
- 2Present participle of commission.
The city is commissioning a study on traffic safety this year.
The gallery is commissioning several local sculptors for the upcoming exhibition.
Note
The -ing form does double duty. In "will be commissioning the new destroyer" it carries the progressive, and in "commissioning a portrait takes months" it works as a gerund, a verb doing a noun's job. In both roles it stays transitive and needs an object: a study, an artist, a ship. With "the" in front and an "of" phrase after, the word has become the engineering noun instead.
Showing meanings only.
commissioning is a form of commission
commission, verb: To formally order the creation of something, often a piece of art. Full entry
- Forms
- commissioncommissions he/she/itcommissioning -ing formcommissioned past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- commission → commissioning: add -ing
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