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PlainSpell

commute

/kəˈmjut/verb, noun

commute is spelled C-O-M-M-U-T-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.6 times per million words in written English, the 13,695th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, commute means “To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in commute?

Letters7: C-O-M-M-U-T-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.6 times per million words; the 13,695th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is commute?

Commute appears 3.6 times per million words in written English, the 13,695th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce commute?

  • UK /kəˈmjuːt/
  • US /kəˈmjut/
  • Australia /kəˈmjʉːt/

Commute has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-commute.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-commute.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with commute?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as commute from its last stressed vowel (/ut/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of commute

  • commutes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • commuting participle, present
  • commuted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does commute mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen

    to commute tithes into rentcharges for a sum

  2. 2

    To pay, or arrange to pay, in advance, in a lump sum instead of part by part.

    to commute the daily toll for a year's pass

  3. 3

    To reduce the sentence previously given for a criminal offense.

    His prison sentence was commuted to probation.

  4. 4

    To pay out the lumpsum present value of an annuity, instead of paying in instalments; to cash in; to encash

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo obtain or bargain for exemption or substitution;

  6. 6

    Of an operation, to be commutative, i.e. to have the property that changing the order of the operands does not change the result.

    A pair of matrices share the same set of eigenvectors if and only if they commute.

  7. 7

    CanadaUKUSTo regularly travel from one's home to one's workplace or school, or vice versa.

    I commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan by bicycle.

  8. 8

    To regularly travel from one place to another using public transport.

  9. 9

    To journey, to make a journey

    By one estimate, vultures either residing in or commuting into the Serengeti ecosystem during the annual migration–when 1.3 million white-bearded wildebeests shuffle between Kenya and Tanzania–historically consumed more meat than all mammal

noun

  1. 1

    A regular journey between two places, typically home and work.

  2. 2

    The route, time or distance of that journey.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Commute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanablösen, umwandeln (finance: to pay out the lump-sum present value), herabsetzen, abwandeln (legal: to reduce a sentence), Arbeitsweg, Pendlerstrecke (route)
Spanishconmutar, indultar (legal: to reduce a sentence), ruta pendular, ruta al y del trabajo (route), distancia pendular (distance), pendular (to regularly travel to and from work, school…)
Frenchtrajet (route), faire la navette (to regularly travel to and from work, school…), commuter (math: to be commutative)
Portuguesefazer a jornada (de trabalho) (to regularly travel to and from work, school…), comutar (math: to be commutative)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does commute come from?

Borrowed from Latin commūtō.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after commute