Hypertext Webster Gateway: "permutation"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Permutation \Per`mu*ta"tion\, n. [L. permutatio: cf. F.
permutation. See {Permute}.]
1. The act of permuting; exchange of the thing for another;
mutual transference; interchange.
The violent convulsions and permutations that have
been made in property. --Burke.
2. (Math.)
(a) The arrangement of any determinate number of things,
as units, objects, letters, etc., in all possible
orders, one after the other; -- called also
{alternation}. Cf. {Combination}, n., 4.
(b) Any one of such possible arrangements.
3. (Law) Barter; exchange.
{Permutation lock}, a lock in which the parts can be
transposed or shifted, so as to require different
arrangements of the tumblers on different occasions of
unlocking.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
permutation
n 1: an event in which one thing is substituted for another; "the
replacement of lost blood by a transfusion of donor
blood" [syn: {substitution}, {transposition}, {replacement},
{switch}]
2: the act of changing the arrangement of a given number of
elements
3: complete change in character or condition: "the
permutations...taking place in the physical world"- Henry
Miller
4: act of changing the lineal order of objects in a group
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