commute

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin commūtō.

verb

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
   1. (transitive, finance, law) To pay, or arrange to pay, in advance, in a lump sum instead of part by part.
      to commute the daily toll for a year's pass
   2. (transitive, law, criminology) To reduce the sentence previously given for a criminal offense.
      His prison sentence was commuted to probation.
   3. (transitive, insurance, pensions) To pay out the lumpsum present value of an annuity, instead of paying in instalments; to cash in; to encash
   4. (intransitive, obsolete) To obtain or bargain for exemption or substitution;
2. (intransitive, mathematics) Of an operation, to be commutative, i.e. to have the property that changing the order of the operands does not change the result.
   A pair of matrices share the same set of eigenvectors if and only if they commute.

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.

noun

1. A regular journey between two places, typically home and work.
2. The route, time or distance of that journey.

verb

1. (intransitive, US, UK, Canada) To regularly travel from one's home to one's workplace or school, or vice versa.
   I commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan by bicycle.
2. (intransitive, Philippines) To regularly travel from one place to another using public transport.
3. (intransitive) To journey, to make a journey
   By one estimate, vultures either residing in or commuting into the Serengeti ecosystem during the annual migration—when 1.3 million white-bearded wildebeests shuffle between Kenya and Tanzania—historically consumed more meat than all mammalian carnivores in the Serengeti combined. 2015, Elizabeth Royte, Vultures Are Revolting. Here’s Why We Need to Save Them., National Geographic (December 2015)http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/vultures-text