Nearby Words

permutation

[pur-myoo-tey-shuhn] Example Sentences Origin

per·mu·ta·tion

[pur-myoo-tey-shuhn]
noun
1.
the act of permuting or permutating; alteration; transformation.
2.
Mathematics.
a.
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.
b.
any of the resulting arrangements or groups. Compare combination (def. 8b).

Origin:
1325–75; Middle English permutacioun (< Middle French permutacion) < Latin permūtātiōn- (stem of permūtātiō) thoroughgoing change. See per-, mutation, permute

per·mu·ta·tion·al, adjective
per·mu·ta·tion·ist, noun


1. modification, transmutation, change.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Permutation is a GRE word you need to know.
So is inhibit. Does it mean:
moderate or self-restrained; not extreme in opinion, statement, or overly indulgent in appetite or passion
to restrain, hinder, arrest, or check; to prohibit or forbid
Example Sentences
  • Right now, moviegoers are riding a wave of movies that feature insects in every possible permutation.
  • The interesting permutation in this backchannel backlash, to me, is that it was conducted silently.
  • The reason is that every possible permutation needs to be looked at in order to find the best.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
permutation (ˌpɜːmjʊˈteɪʃən)
 
n
1.  maths
 a.  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
 b.  Compare combination nPr a group formed in this way. The number of permutations of n objects taken r at a time is n!/(n--r)!
2.  a combination of items made by reordering
3.  an alteration; transformation
4.  Usually shortened to: perm a fixed combination for selections of results on football pools
 
[C14: from Latin permūtātiō, from permūtāre to change thoroughly; see mutation]
 
permu'tational
 
adj

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

permutation
mid-14c., from O.Fr. permutacion (14c.), from L. permutationem (nom. permutatio), from permutatus, pp. of permutare "change thoroughly, exchange," from per- "thoroughly" + mutare "to change" (see mutable).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary

permutation definition

mathematics
1. An ordering of a certain number of elements of a given set.
For instance, the permutations of (1,2,3) are (1,2,3) (2,3,1) (3,1,2) (3,2,1) (1,3,2) (2,1,3).
Permutations form one of the canonical examples of a "group" - they can be composed and you can find an inverse permutation that reverses the action of any given permutation.
The number of permutations of r things taken from a set of n is
n P r = n! / (n-r)!
where "n P r" is usually written with n and r as subscripts and n! is the factorial of n.
What the football pools call a "permutation" is not a permutation but a combination - the order does not matter.
2. A bijection for which the domain and range are the same set and so
f(f'(x)) = f'(f(x)) = x.
(2001-05-10)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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