to change (a prison sentence or other penalty) to a less severe one: The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
to exchange for another or for something else; give and take reciprocally; interchange.
to change: to commute base metal into gold.
to change (one kind of payment) into or for another, as by substitution.
verb (used without object),com·mut·ed,com·mut·ing.
to travel regularly over some distance, as from a suburb into a city and back: He commutes to work by train.
to make substitution.
to serve as a substitute.
to make a collective payment, especially of a reduced amount, as an equivalent for a number of payments.
Mathematics. to give the same result whether operating on the left or on the right.
noun
a trip made by commuting: It's a long commute from his home to his office.
an act or instance of commuting.
Origin of commute
First recorded in 1400–50, and in 1885–90 for def. 5; late Middle English, from Latin commūtāre “to change, replace, exchange,” equivalent to com- “with, together” (see com-) + mūtāre “to change”
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.