-commut-

a. [ L. commutabilis. ] Capable of being commuted or interchanged. [ 1913 Webster ]

The predicate and subject are not commutable. Whately. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being commutable; interchangeableness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. commutatio: cf. F. commutation. ] 1. A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

So great is the commutation that the soul then hated only that which now only it loves. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The use of money is . . . that of saving the commutation of more bulky commodities. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) The change of a penalty or punishment by the pardoning power of the State; as, the commutation of a sentence of death to banishment or imprisonment. [ 1913 Webster ]

Suits are allowable in the spiritual courts for money agreed to be given as a commutation for penance. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A substitution, as of a less thing for a greater, esp. a substitution of one form of payment for another, or one payment for many, or a specific sum of money for conditional payments or allowances; as, commutation of tithes; commutation of fares; commutation of copyright; commutation of rations. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. regular travel from a place of residence to a place where one's daily work is performed; commuting. Most often, such travel is performed between a suburb and a nearby city. [ 1913 Webster ]

Angle of commutation (Astron.), the difference of the geocentric longitudes of the sun and a planet. --
Commutation of tithes, the substitution of a regular payment, chargeable to the land, for the annual tithes in kind. --
Commutation ticket, a ticket, as for transportation, which is the evidence of a contract for service at a reduced rate. See 2d Commute, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

. A ticket for transportation at a reduced rate in consideration of some special circumstance, as increase of travel; specif., a ticket for a certain number of, or for daily, trips between neighboring places at a reduced rate, such as are commonly used by those doing business in a city and living in a suburb. Commutation tickets are excepted from the prohibition against special rates contained in the Interstate Commerce Act of Feb. 4, 1887 (24 Stat. 379), and in 145 U. S. 263 it was held that party tickets were also excepted as being “obviously within the commuting principle.” [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ CF. F. commutatif. ] 1. Relative to exchange; interchangeable; reciprocal. -- Com*mut"a*tive"ly, adv. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rich traders, from their success, are presumed . . . to have cultivated an habitual regard to commutative justice. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Math.) having the property of commutativity. [ PJC ]

n. (Math.) the property of a binary operation or operator such that the result of one term operating on a second is equal to the result of the second term operating on the first. [ GG ]

☞ If the symbol “*” is taken to be a commutative binary operator, then the following equation holds: a*b = b*a A common example is the addition operator for real numbers, “+”: a+b = b+a [ GG ]

n. (Elec.) A piece of apparatus used for reversing the direction of an electrical current; an attachment to certain electrical machines, by means of which alternating currents are made to be continuous or to have the same direction. It may be attached to the end of the spindle of an electric motor, where a brush is in contact sequentially with the parts of the spindle that conduct current to the different windings of the motor. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Commuted; p. pr. & vb. n. Commuting. ] [ L. commutare, -mutatum; com- + mutare to change. See Mutation. ] 1. To exchange; to put or substitute something else in place of, as a smaller penalty, obligation, or payment, for a greater, or a single thing for an aggregate; hence, to lessen; to diminish; as, to commute a sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges for fares. [ 1913 Webster ]

The sounds water and fire, being once annexed to those two elements, it was certainly more natural to call beings participating of the first “watery”, and the last “fiery”, than to commute the terms, and call them by the reverse. J. Harris [ 1913 Webster ]

The utmost that could be obtained was that her sentence should be commuted from burning to beheading. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]