commutative
of or relating to commutation, exchange, substitution, or interchange.
Mathematics.
(of a binary operation) having the property that one term operating on a second is equal to the second operating on the first, as a × b = b × a.
having reference to this property: commutative law for multiplication.
Origin of commutative
1Other words from commutative
- com·mu·ta·tive·ly, adverb
- com·mu·ta·tiv·i·ty, noun
- non·com·mu·ta·tive, adjective
- un·com·mu·ta·tive, adjective
- un·com·mu·ta·tive·ly, adverb
- un·com·mu·ta·tive·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use commutative in a sentence
It is subjected to certain conditions and, for example, to the rules of commutativity and associativity of addition.
British Dictionary definitions for commutative
/ (kəˈmjuːtətɪv, ˈkɒmjʊˌteɪtɪv) /
relating to or involving substitution
maths logic
(of an operator) giving the same result irrespective of the order of the arguments; thus disjunction and addition are commutative but implication and subtraction are not
relating to this property: the commutative law of addition
Derived forms of commutative
- commutatively, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for commutative
[ kə-myōō′tə-tĭv, kŏm′yə-tā′tĭv ]
Of or relating to binary operations for which changing the order of the inputs does not change the result of the operation. For example, addition is commutative, since a + b = b + a for any two numbers a and b, while subtraction is not commutative, since a - b ≠ a - b unless both a and b are zero. See also associative distributive.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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