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; ME permutacioun (< MF permutacion) < L permūtātiōn- (s. of permūtātiō) thoroughgoing change. See per-, mutation, permute
1362, 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).
[pur-myoo-tey-shuh
n] 