overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

commute.

To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kəˈmjuːt/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈmjut/Canada, General-American/kəˈmjʉːt/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen

    to commute tithes into rentcharges for a sum
    to commute market rents for a premium
  2. To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen To pay, or arrange to pay, in advance, in a lump sum instead of part by part.

    transitive
    to commute the daily toll for a year's pass
  3. To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen To reduce the sentence previously given for a criminal offense.

    transitive
    His prison sentence was commuted to probation.
  4. To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen To pay out the lumpsum present value of an annuity, instead of paying in instalments; to cash in; to encash

    transitive
  5. To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen To obtain or bargain for exemption or substitution;

    intransitive · obsolete
  6. Of an operation, to be commutative, i.e. to have the property that changing the order of the operands does not change the result.

    intransitive
    A pair of matrices share the same set of eigenvectors if and only if they commute.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin mūtō Latin commūtōbor. English commute Borrowed from Latin commūtō.

noun/kəˈmjuːt/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈmjut/Canada, General-American/kəˈmjʉːt/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A regular journey between two places, typically home and work.

    transitive
  2. The route, time or distance of that journey.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree ▲ English commute Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ationbor. Middle English -acioun English -ation English commutation English ticket English commutation ticket English commute From commutation ticket, a pass on a railroad, streetcar line, etc. that permitted multiple rides over a period of time, e.g. a month, for a single, commuted payment.

verb/kəˈmjuːt/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈmjut/Canada, General-American/kəˈmjʉːt/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To regularly travel from one's home to one's workplace or school, or vice versa.

    Canada · UK · US · intransitive
    I commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan by bicycle.
  2. To regularly travel from one place to another using public transport.

    Philippines · intransitive
  3. To journey, to make a journey

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree ▲ English commute Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ationbor. Middle English -acioun English -ation English commutation English ticket English commutation ticket English commute From commutation ticket, a pass on a railroad, streetcar line, etc. that permitted multiple rides over a period of time, e.g. a month, for a single, commuted payment.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

commute has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

commute studiocommute workshello, commute

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.