combinatorial

[kuhm-bahy-nuh-tawr-ee-uhl, -tohr-, kom-buh-]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or involving the combination of elements, as in phonetics or music.

2. of or relating to the enumeration of the number of ways of doing some specific task or of arranging items in a specific configuration.

3. Mathematics.,  of or relating to combination, or the modes, properties, etc., of combinations.

Other Word Forms

• combinatorially adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of combinatorial¹

First recorded in 1810–20; combinatory + -al ¹

Example Sentences

And they also showed that sperm whale codas are indeed combinatorial, similar to the compositionally shown by bonobos and chimps.

From Salon

“But the fact that they have this combinatorial basis is already very interesting.”

From Science Magazine

Instead of all the many combinatorial possibilities, many fewer "subspaces" of activity actually arise, because neurons are coordinated, rather than independent.

From Science Daily

Those results suggest a combinatorial approach that is worth exploring in patients in the future.

From Science Daily

Annealing processors are designed specifically for addressing combinatorial optimization problems, where the task is to find the best solution from a finite set of possibilities.

From Science Daily