Dictionary
per•mu•ta•tion
Pronunciation: (pûr"myoo-tā'shun), [key]—
n.
1. the act of permuting or permutating; alteration; transformation.
2. Math.
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. Cf.
combination (def. 8b).
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.