<p><strong>Verb (used with object)</strong></p><ul><li>to change (a prison sentence or other penalty) to a less severe one: The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.</li><li>to exchange for another or for something else; give and take reciprocally; interchange.</li><li>to change: to commute base metal into gold.</li><li>to change (one kind of payment) into or for another, as by substitution.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object)</strong></p><ul><li>to travel regularly over some distance, as from a suburb into a city and back: He commutes to work by train.</li><li>to make substitution.</li><li>to serve as a substitute.</li><li>to make a collective payment, especially of a reduced amount, as an equivalent for a number of payments.</li><li>Mathematics: to give the same result whether operating on the left or on the right.</li></ul><p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>a trip made by commuting: It's a long commute from his home to his office.</li><li>an act or instance of commuting.</li></ul>