commutation

Substitution of one thing for another; interchange.archaiccountableformal

Specifically, the substitution of one kind of payment for another, especially a switch to monetary payment from obligations of labour.countableuncountable

• Professor Postan has argued in favour of a rapid move towards commutation in the twelfth century which slackened or even went into reverse in the course of the thirteenth.

The change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the Statecountableuncountable

• Monsieur the Marquis de Sade [was] now holed up in one of his châteaux while his wife worked for the commutation of a sentence passed on him recently for poisoning and buggery.

Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.countableuncountable

The reversal of an electric current.countableuncountable

A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.countableobsoleteuncountable

The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.countableobsoleteuncountable

The process or habit of journeying to and from work on a regular basis; commuting.UScountablenonstandard

• but there was no city officer to stand forth and ask for it — not even so much as to require frequent trains, low fares, and commutations on that part of the road which ran within the city limits.
• When Mary worked as an adjunct, she deliberately never calculated how much commutation and the babysitter were costing because she suspected that she was probably losing money on the deal.