permutation
Americannoun
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the act of permuting or permutating; alteration; transformation.
- Synonyms:
- change, transmutation, modification
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an arrangement of a set of objects or elements in a specific order or placement.
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Mathematics.
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the act of changing the order of elements arranged in a particular order, as abc into acb, bac, etc., or of arranging a number of elements in groups made up of equal numbers of the elements in different orders, as a and b in ab and ba; a one-to-one transformation of a set with a finite number of elements.
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any of the resulting arrangements or groups.
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noun
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maths
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an ordered arrangement of the numbers, terms, etc, of a set into specified groups
the permutations of a, b, and c, taken two at a time, are ab, ba, ac, ca, bc, cb
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nPr. a group formed in this way. The number of permutations of n objects taken r at a time is n !/( n – r )! Compare combination
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a combination of items made by reordering
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an alteration; transformation
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Usually shortened to: perm. a fixed combination for selections of results on football pools
Other Word Forms
- permutational adjective
- permutationist noun
Etymology
Origin of permutation
1325–75; Middle English permutacioun (< Middle French permutacion ) < Latin permūtātiōn- (stem of permūtātiō ) thoroughgoing change. See per-, mutation, permute
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
History is littered with examples of big media mergers going awry, many of them involving some permutation of Warner Bros.:
From MarketWatch
Stewart added: "Everything is on the line. The permutations from all these games are incredible. That's what makes this season so exciting."
From BBC
“But it’s just another permutation of what you take home when you go to the movies.”
As Leeds head to Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time on Monday, it gives cause to reflect on the numerous permutations of how things could have looked had Revie signed with the Toffees.
From BBC
With the NFL’s conference championship games set — the Rams at Seattle following New England at Denver — three of the four possible Super Bowl permutations are rematches.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
