commute

A commute is a journey you take from home to work and back again. You might enjoy your subway commute because it gives you lots of time to read.

Your commute is your trip to work, and the verb commute describes making that trip — like your preference to commute by public bus. Another meaning of commute describes changing the length of a judicial sentence, like when a judge commutes someone's time in jail. You can see this meaning in the word's origin — the Latin word commutare, meaning "to change altogether."

Definitions of commute
  1. noun
    a regular journey of some distance to and from your place of work
    “there is standing room only on the high-speed commute”
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    type of:
    journey, journeying
    the act of traveling from one place to another
  2. verb
    travel back and forth regularly, as between one's place of work and home
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    types:
    live out, sleep out
    work in a house where one does not live
    type of:
    jaunt, travel, trip
    make a trip for pleasure
  3. verb
    exchange or replace with another, usually of the same kind or category
    synonyms: change, convert, exchange
    change, shift, switch
    lay aside, abandon, or leave for another
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    types:
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    rectify
    convert into direct current
    utilize
    convert (from an investment trust to a unit trust)
    capitalise, capitalize
    convert (a company's reserve funds) into capital
    launder
    convert illegally obtained funds into legal ones
    break
    exchange for smaller units of money
    overcapitalise, overcapitalize
    capitalize beyond what the business or the profit-making prospects warrant
    type of:
    replace
    substitute a person or thing for (another that is broken or inefficient or lost or no longer working or yielding what is expected)
  4. verb
    exchange a penalty for a less severe one
    synonyms: convert, exchange
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    type of:
    alter, change, modify
    cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
  5. verb
    exchange positions without a change in value
    “These operators commute with each other”
    synonyms: transpose
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    type of:
    change
    undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
  6. verb
    change the order or arrangement of
    synonyms: permute, transpose
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    types:
    map, represent
    to establish a mapping (of mathematical elements or sets)
    type of:
    change by reversal, reverse, turn
    change to the contrary
Word Family