Word.ws English Dictionary

commutation

/kɒmjuːˈteɪʃən/

commutation noun: substitution of one thing for another; interchange.

commutation: a person stands in front of a train
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Noun (1)

commutation (countable and uncountable, plural commutations)

  1. (archaic, formal) Substitution of one thing for another; interchange.
  2. Specifically, the substitution of one kind of payment for another, especially a switch to monetary payment from obligations of labour.
    • Professor Postan has argued in favour of a rapid move towards commutation in the twelfth century which slackened or even went into reverse in the course of the thirteenth.1969, Philip Ziegler, The Black Death, Folio Society, published 2006, page 213
  3. The change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the State
    • Monsieur the Marquis de Sade [was] now holed up in one of his châteaux while his wife worked for the commutation of a sentence passed on him recently for poisoning and buggery.1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 23
  4. Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.
  5. The reversal of an electric current.
  6. (obsolete) A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.
  7. (obsolete) The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.

Noun (2)

commutation (countable and uncountable, plural commutations)

  1. (US, nonstandard) The process or habit of journeying to and from work on a regular basis; commuting.
    • but there was no city officer to stand forth and ask for it — not even so much as to require frequent trains, low fares, and commutations on that part of the road which ran within the city limits.1879, WR Martin, “Cities as Units in Our Polity”, in The North American Review
    • These permit the limited number willing to abandon their automobiles for long hikes to visit some of the most rugged terrain in Southern California. Major resort centers with substantial year-around residence (and much commutation) occur in the western Santa Monica Mountains, the San Bernardino...1981, David W. Lantis, Rodney Steiner, Arthur E. Karinen, California, land of contrast, page 166

commutation meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Indonesian

commutation in Tamil

தொகுத்துப் பெறல், மாற்றுகை, பண ஈடாக மாற்றுதல், மின்னோட்ட இடைமாற்றி

commutation in Kannada

ಕೊಡುಕೊಳೆ, ಮಾರ್ಪು, ಕಡಿತ

commutation in Indonesian

a passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation
pergantian, komutasi

Examples of commutation in a sentence

  • Major resort centers with substantial year-around residence (and much commutation) occur in the western Santa Monica Mountains, the San Bernardino Mountains, and around Idyllwild in the San Jacinto.1981, David W. Lantis, Rodney Steiner, Arthur E. Karinen, California, land of contrast, page 166:
  • After decades of complaint that cities are exploited by suburban commuters, the American metropolis is experiencing more and more commutation in the other direction.1999, BW Hawkins, DM Ihrke, “Research Note: Reexamining the Suburban Exploitation Thesis in American Metropolitan Areas”, in Publius: The...
  • When Mary worked as an adjunct, she deliberately never calculated how much commutation and the babysitter were costing because she suspected that she was probably losing money on the deal.2004, Mary W. Quigley, Loretta E. Kaufman, Going Back To Work: A Survival Guide for Comeback Moms, page 36:

Forms of commutation

pluralcommutations

Origin of commutation

From French commutation, from Latin commūtātiōnem, accusative singular of commūtātiō.

English ticket English commutation ticket English commute Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ationbor. Middle English -acioun English -ation English commutation From commute + -ation.

Words formed from commutation

Phrases with commutation

Questions about commutation

What does commutation mean?
Commutation means substitution of one thing for another; interchange.
What is commutation in Tamil?
Commutation in Tamil is தொகுத்துப் பெறல், மாற்றுகை, பண ஈடாக மாற்றுதல். See Commutation meaning in Tamil.
How do you use commutation in a sentence?
Major resort centers with substantial year-around residence (and much commutation) occur in the western Santa Monica Mountains, the San Bernardino Mountains, and around Idyllwild in the San Jacinto.
What part of speech is commutation?
Commutation is a noun.
How do you pronounce commutation?
Commutation is pronounced /kɒmjuːˈteɪʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of commutation?
The plural of commutation is commutations.

Words near commutation in the dictionary

  1. commutants
  2. commutate
  3. commutated
  4. commutates
  5. commutating
  6. commutation
  7. commutation ticket
  8. commutation tickets
  9. commutations
  10. commutative
  11. commutative algebra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: commutation (page history and authors); commutation (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); commutation (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-commutation.wav.

Cite this entry: “commutation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/commutation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.