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Pardon vs Commutation - What's the difference?

pardon | commutation |

In context|legal|lang=en terms the difference between pardon and commutation

is that pardon is (legal) an order that releases a convicted criminal without further punishment, prevents future punishment, or (in some jurisdictions) removes an offence from a person's criminal record, as if it had never been committed while commutation is (legal) the change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the state.

As nouns the difference between pardon and commutation

is that pardon is forgiveness for an offence while commutation is (obsolete) a passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.

As a verb pardon

is to forgive.

As an interjection pardon

is .

pardon

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Forgiveness for an offence.
  • * 1748 : Samuel Richardson, Clarissa
    • a step, that could not be taken with the least hope of ever obtaining pardon from or reconciliation with any of my friends;
  • (legal) An order that releases a convicted criminal without further punishment, prevents future punishment, or (in some jurisdictions) removes an offence from a person's criminal record, as if it had never been committed.
  • * 1974 : President Gerald Ford, Proclamation 4311
    • I... have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States ...

    Derived terms

    * I beg your pardon

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To forgive.
  • * 1599 : (William Shakespeare),
    • O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
  • * 1815 : (Jane Austen), (Emma)
    • I hope you will not find he has outstepped the truth more than may be pardoned , in consideration of the motive.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned .}}
  • To refrain from exacting as a penalty.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it.
  • (legal) To grant an official pardon for a crime; unguilt.
  • * 1900', , ' (The House Behind the Cedars) , Chapter I,
    • The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

    Derived terms

    * pardonable * pardoner * pardon me * pardon my French * unpardonable

    Interjection

    • Pardon? , What did you say?, Can you say that again?

    commutation

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.
  • (obsolete) The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.
  • Substitution of one thing for another; interchange.
  • Specifically, the substitution of one kind of payment for another, especially a switch to monetary payment from obligations of labour.
  • * 1969 , Philip Ziegler, The Black Death , Folio Society 2006, p. 213:
    • Professor Postan has argued in favour of a rapid move towards commutation in the twelfth century which slackened or even went into reverse in the course of the thirteenth.
  • (legal) The change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the State
  • * 1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 23:
    • Monsieur the Marquis de Sade [was] now holed up in one of his châteaux while his wife worked for the commutation of a sentence passed on him recently for poisoning and buggery.
  • (linguistics) Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.
  • (electronics) The reversal of an electric current.