combinatorial
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or involving the combination of elements, as in phonetics or music.
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of or relating to the enumeration of the number of ways of doing some specific task or of arranging items in a specific configuration.
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Mathematics. of or relating to combination, or the modes, properties, etc., of combinations.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of combinatorial
First recorded in 1810–20; combinatory + -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This mechanism is what enables combinatorial biosynthesis and allows bacteria to naturally generate multiple drug variants.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
Now they are solving classic problems in combinatorial geometry using algebraic number theory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
The lack of flexible and open-ended communication, which occurs by means of combinatorial structures or compositionality that allows us to put just about any idea into language, was seen as the great barrier.
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
The minigames within Lorelei almost included Nim, an ancient combinatorial game that appears in “Last Year at Marienbad.”
From New York Times ● May 15, 2024
They indulge as well in reductio ad absurdum, the logical practice of taking any premise to an extreme, and in various sorts of combinatorial word play.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
