commutation

  1. Noun.  (obsolete) A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.
  2. Noun.  (obsolete) The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.
  3. Noun.  (context, formal) Substitution of one thing for another; interchange.
  4. Noun.  Specifically, the substitution of one kind of payment for another, especially a switch to monetary payment from obligations of labour.
  5. Noun.  (legal) The change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the State.
  6. Noun.  (linguistics) Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.
  7. Noun.  (electronics) The reversal of an electric current.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.