1. the action or process of commuting a judicial sentence: "a commutation of her sentence"
▪ the conversion of a legal obligation or entitlement into another form, e.g. the replacement of an annuity or series of payments by a single payment: "the commutation of dues into money rents"
2. the process of commutating an electric current.
3. the property of having a commutative relation.
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘exchange, barter’, later ‘alteration’): from Latin commutatio(n-), from commutare ‘exchange, interchange’ (see commute). commutation (sense 1) dates from the late 16th century.