captain vs command

captain

noun
  • A chief or leader. 

  • An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel. 

  • The head boy of a school. 

  • A maître d', a headwaiter. 

  • An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major. 

  • A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore. 

  • The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel. 

  • One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official. 

  • A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel. 

  • The leader of a group of workers. 

verb
  • To act as captain 

  • To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team. 

command

noun
  • A position of chief authority; a position involving the right or power to order or control. 

  • power of control, direction or disposal; mastery. 

  • A directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task. 

  • The right or authority to order, control or dispose of; the right to be obeyed or to compel obedience. 

  • An order to do something. 

  • Dominating situation; range or control or oversight; extent of view or outlook. 

  • A command performance. 

  • A body or troops, or any naval or military force, under the control of a particular officer; by extension, any object or body in someone's charge. 

  • The degree of control a pitcher has over his pitches. 

  • The act of commanding; exercise or authority of influence. 

verb
  • To order, give orders; to compel or direct with authority. 

  • To require with authority; to demand, order, enjoin. 

  • to dominate through ability, resources, position etc.; to overlook. 

  • To hold, to control the use of. 

  • To exact, compel or secure by influence; to deserve, claim. 

  • To have or exercise supreme power, control or authority over, especially military; to have under direction or control. 

How often have the words captain and command occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )