the act of permuting or permutating; alteration; transformation.
Mathematics.
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.
any of the resulting arrangements or groups.Compare combination (def. 8b).
Origin of permutation
1325–75; Middle English permutacioun (<Middle French permutacion) <Latin permūtātiōn- (stem of permūtātiō) thoroughgoing change. See per-, mutation, permute
Usually in order to find them you need to go fishing in the sea of permutations of different elements.
Alchemy Arrives in a Burst of Light|Philip Ball|September 30, 2020|Quanta Magazine
It is clear how very different the results would become by the permutation and combination of these diverse factors.
Life Movements in Plants|Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose
This indicates the distinction between the permutation of letters and the transition of letters.
The English Language|Robert Gordon Latham
We may thus select the four coins in one hundred ways, and the four removed may be arranged by permutation in twenty-four ways.
Amusements in Mathematics|Henry Ernest Dudeney
This permutation is made very convenient by the sentences being printed in sections which may be moved about and combined at will.
Montessori Elementary Materials|Maria Montessori
Let this be learned to perfection, backwards and forwards, or by permutation of words, and repeated the next day.
The Mystic Will|Charles Godfrey Leland
British Dictionary definitions for permutation
permutation
/ (ˌpɜːmjʊˈteɪʃən) /
noun
maths
an ordered arrangement of the numbers, terms, etc, of a set into specified groupsthe permutations of a, b, and c, taken two at a time, are ab, ba, ac, ca, bc, cb
a group formed in this way. The number of permutations of n objects taken r at a time is n !/(n – r)!Symbol: n P r Compare combination (def. 6)
a combination of items made by reordering
an alteration; transformation
a fixed combination for selections of results on football poolsUsually shortened to: perm
Derived forms of permutation
permutational, adjective
Word Origin for permutation
C14: from Latin permūtātiō, from permūtāre to change thoroughly; see mutation