commutation

[kom-yuh-tey-shuhn]

noun

1. the act of substituting one thing for another; substitution; exchange.

2. the changing of a prison sentence or other penalty to another less severe.

3. the act of commuting, as to and from a place of work.

4. the substitution of one kind of payment for another.

5. Electricity.,  the act or process of commutating.

6. Also called commutation test. Linguistics.,  the technique, especially in phonological analysis, of substituting one linguistic item for another while keeping the surrounding elements constant, used as a means of determining the constituent units in a sequence and their contrasts with other units.

commutation

/ ˌkɒmjʊˈteɪʃən /

noun

1. a substitution or exchange

2. 1. the replacement of one method of payment by another

   2. the payment substituted

3. the reduction in severity of a penalty imposed by law

4. the process of commutating an electric current

5. the travelling done by a commuter

Other Word Forms

• procommutation adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of commutation¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English commutacioun, from Latin commūtātiōn-, stem of commutātiō “change”; equivalent to commute + -ation

Example Sentences

According to reports, she is working on a commutation application.

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Those clemencies came on top of the commutation awarded last month to George Santos, the disgraced former New York congressman found guilty of defrauding donors and lying to the House of Representatives.

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It’s the second time that Santos has brought up Jesus in relation to his sentence commutation.

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The administration has not indicated whether Santos’s restitution or supervised release conditions were waived, though the commutation ends his prison term.

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“We wanted to focus on that very recent, very tangible and particularly gross injustice, which doesn’t close the door on revisiting other commutations in prior eras and in prior administrations,” he said.

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