commutations

Noun

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.

See all 8 meanings of commutation