资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Permutation \Per`mu*ta"tion\, n. [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}, n., 4.
      (b) Any one of such possible arrangements.

   3. (Law) Barter; exchange.

   {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.