Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

commutative

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.51 in modern English

Syllables: com-mu-ta-tive
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

4

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Such that the order in which the operands are taken does not affect their image under the operation.

adj

Having a commutative operation.

adj

Such that any two sequences of morphisms with the same initial and final positions compose to the same morphism.

adj

Relating to exchange; interchangeable.

Example Sentences

"Addition on the real numbers is commutative because for any real numbers s,t, it is true that s#43;t#61;t#43;s."
"Addition and multiplication are commutative operations but subtraction and division are not."
"The associativity of OR and AND is not at all obvious. It is tempting to assume that because OR and AND are commutative that they must be associative also. This is not the case, however, and some commutative Boolean operators are not associative. Examples include NAND and NOR."

Etymology

From French commuter (“to substitute or switch”) + -ative (“tending to”). See commute.

Origin

Source language: French

Word Breakdown

Root: commuter

Derived Forms

cocommutative commutatively commutativeness commutativity gyrocommutative noncommutative supercommutative uncommutative

Phrases

combinatorial commutative algebra commutative algebra commutative group commutative justice commutative property commutative ring

Frequently Paired Words

commutator commute

Synonyms

abelian

Antonyms

anticommutative

Questions

What does commutative mean?: Such that the order in which the operands are taken does not affect their image under the operation.
Where does commutative come from?: It is traced to French.

How to pronounce commutative

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