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commute

v. · n.
US //kəmˈjut// UK //kəmjˈuːt// com·mute
  1. 1 travel to work (v.)
    B1 Intermediate

    to travel regularly between your home and your place of work or school.

    to travel a significant distance between one's place of residence and place of work on a regular basis. Intransitive in this sense.

    Example

    She has to commute for an hour by train every morning to get to her office.

    Example

    Many professionals now prefer remote work to avoid the exhaustion of a daily ninety-minute commute into the city centre.

    Usage

    Often used with the preposition 'to' or 'from'.
  2. 2 reduce a punishment (v.)
    C1 Advanced Formal Law

    to change a legal punishment to one that is less severe.

    to substitute a legal penalty or judicial sentence with a less severe one. Transitive; typically used in high-level legal or political contexts.

    Example

    The governor decided to commute the prisoner's life sentence to twenty years.

    Example

    The president exercised his executive power to commute the sentences of several non-violent offenders during his final week in office.
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  1. 3 mathematical order (v.)
    C2 Proficiency Technical Math

    in math, when the order of numbers does not change the final result.

    to satisfy the commutative property, where the order of operands does not affect the result of an operation.

    Example

    In basic addition, the numbers commute because two plus three is the same as three plus two.

    Example

    While addition and multiplication of real numbers commute, matrix multiplication generally does not, making the order of operations critical.

  2. 4 the journey to work (n.)
    B1 Intermediate

    the regular trip you make between your home and your work.

    a regular journey of some distance between one's home and place of work.

    Example

    His morning commute is much faster now that he takes the new highway.

    Example

    The city's aging infrastructure has made the daily commute increasingly unreliable for thousands of suburban rail passengers.
Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin commūtō.

Etymology 2

From commutation ticket, a pass on a railroad, streetcar line, etc. that permitted multiple rides over a period of time, eg, a month, for a single, commuted payment.

Word family

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