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commute

[kuh-myoot]
verb (used with object), com·mut·ed, com·mut·ing.
  1. to change (a prison sentence or other penalty) to a less severe one: The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
  2. to exchange for another or for something else; give and take reciprocally; interchange.
  3. to change: to commute base metal into gold.
  4. to change (one kind of payment) into or for another, as by substitution.
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verb (used without object), com·mut·ed, com·mut·ing.
  1. to travel regularly over some distance, as from a suburb into a city and back: He commutes to work by train.
  2. to make substitution.
  3. to serve as a substitute.
  4. to make a collective payment, especially of a reduced amount, as an equivalent for a number of payments.
  5. Mathematics. to give the same result whether operating on the left or on the right.
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noun
  1. a trip made by commuting: It's a long commute from his home to his office.
  2. an act or instance of commuting.
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Origin of commute

1400–50; 1885–90 for def 5; late Middle English < Latin commūtāre to change, replace, exchange, equivalent to com- com- + mūtāre to change
Related formsun·com·mut·ed, adjective
Can be confusedcommute forgive pardon (see synonym study at pardon)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

shortendrivemitigatemodifyremitsoftendecreasealleviatecurtailtransmuteinterchangeconvertbartertransfertransposetransformmetamorphoseswitchtransmogrifytransfigure

Examples from the Web for commuted

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • His sentence to be shot was commuted to imprisonment for life.

    Roland Cashel

    Charles James Lever

  • The sentence was, however, commuted to transportation for life.

    Old Times at Otterbourne

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • On other estates the serfs' compulsory labor was commuted for a quitrent.

    War and Peace

    Leo Tolstoy

  • Then, will you give me a paper stating that his sentence is commuted?

    Roger Willoughby

    William H. G. Kingston

  • His sentence was, however, commuted by the Governor to imprisonment for life.

    Venus in Boston;

    George Thompson

British Dictionary definitions for commuted

commute

verb
  1. (intr) to travel some distance regularly between one's home and one's place of work
  2. (tr) to substitute; exchange
  3. (tr) law to reduce (a sentence) to one less severe
  4. to pay (an annuity) at one time, esp with a discount, instead of in instalments
  5. (tr) to transform; changeto commute base metal into gold
  6. (intr) to act as or be a substitute
  7. (intr) to make a substitution; change
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noun
  1. a journey made by commuting
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Derived Formscommutable, adjectivecommutability or commutableness, noun

Word Origin

C17: from Latin commutāre to replace, from com- mutually + mutāre to change
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for commuted

commute

v.

mid-15c., "to change, transform," from Latin commutare "to often change, to change altogether," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + mutare "to change" (see mutable). Sense of "make less severe" is 1630s. Sense of "go back and forth to work" is 1889, from commutation ticket "season pass" (on a railroad, streetcar line, etc.), from commute in its sense of "to change one kind of payment into another" (1795), especially "to combine a number of payments into a single one." Related: Commuted; commuting.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
commuted in Science

commute

[kə-myōōt′]
  1. To yield the same result regardless of order. For example, numbers commute under addition, which is a commutative operation. Generally, any two operators H and G commute if their commutator is zero, i.e. HG - GH = 0.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.