Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

commute

Syllabification: (com·mute)
Pronunciation: /kəˈmyo͞ot/

Translate commute | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of commute

verb

  • 1 [no object] travel some distance between one’s home and place of work on a regular basis:she commuted from Westport in to Grand Central Station
  • 2 [with object] reduce (a judicial sentence, especially a sentence of death) to one less severe:the governor recently commuted the sentences of dozens of women convicted of killing their husbands
  • (commute something for/into) change one kind of payment or obligation for (another).
  • replace (an annuity or other series of payments) with a single payment:if he had commuted some of his pension, he would have received $330,000
  • 3 [no object] Mathematics (of two operations or quantities) have a commutative relationship.

noun

  • a regular journey of some distance to and from one’s place of work.

Origin:

late Middle English (in the sense 'interchange (two things)'): from Latin commutare, from com- 'altogether' + mutare 'to change'. commute (sense 1 of the verb) originally meant to buy and use a commutation ticket, a dated term for 'a season ticket' (because the daily fare is commuted to a single payment)

commute in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of commute in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

Word of the day

merrythought

/ ˈmerēˌTHôt /
noun
the wishbone of a bird …