From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Permutation \Per'mu*ta"tion\, noun [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}, noun, 4. (b) Any one of such possible arrangements.
{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 The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Alternation \Al'ter*na"tion\, noun [L. alternatio: cf. F. alternation.]
1. The reciprocal succession of things in time or place; the act of following and being followed by turns; alternate succession, performance, or occurrence; as, the alternation of day and night, cold and heat, summer and winter, hope and fear.
2. (Math.) Permutation.
3. The response of the congregation speaking alternately with the minister. --Mason.
{Alternation of generation}. See under {Generation}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: being regularly exchangeable
2: successive change from one thing or state to another and back again
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
97 Moby Thesaurus words for "alternation": Lissajous figure, back-and-forth, battledore and shuttlecock, beat, chain, coaction, coming and going, commutation, complementary distribution, concurrence, consecution, cooperation, counterchange, cross fire, cyclicalness, ebb and flow, engagement, exchange, fluctuation, flux and reflux, give-and-take, interaction, interchange, intercommunication, intercourse, interlacing, intermeshing, intermittence, intermittency, intermutation, interplay, intertwining, interweaving, interworking, lex talionis, measure for measure, mesh, meshing, meter, mutual admiration, mutual support, mutual transfer, mutuality, order, oscillation, pendulation, pendulum motion, periodicalness, periodicity, permutation, piston motion, progression, pulsation, quid pro quo, reappearance, reciprocality, reciprocation, reciprocity, recurrence, regular wave motion, reoccurrence, repetition, retaliation, return, reversion, rhythm, rhythmic play, rotation, row, seasonality, seesaw, seesawing, sequel, sequence, series, shifting, shuffling, sine wave, something for something, succession, teeter, teeter-totter, teeter-tottering, teetering, tit for tat, to-and-fro, tottering, train, transposal, transposition, undulation, ups and downs, vacillation, variation, vicissitude, wavering, wigwag
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