Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Permutation

Permutation (pẽr`mu"tā"snun) , noun

[Latin permutatio: compare French 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.
(a) (Mathematics) The arrangement of any determinate number of things, as units, objects, letters, etc., in all possible orders, one after the other; -- called also alternation. Compare Combination, n., 4.
(b)
(Mathematics) Any one of such possible arrangements.
3.
(Law) Barter; exchange.
Collocations (1)
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.