combinatorial

[ kuhm-bahy-nuh-tawr-ee-uhl, -tohr-, kom-buh- ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or involving the combination of elements, as in phonetics or music.
2. of or relating to the enumeration of the number of ways of doing some specific task or of arranging items in a specific configuration.
3. Mathematics. of or relating to combination, or the modes, properties, etc., of combinations.

Other Words From

• com·bina·tori·al·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of combinatorial¹

First recorded in 1810–20; combinatory + -al ¹

Example Sentences

“It consists of multiple mutations and we believe a combinatorial effect is coming into play,” says Berger.

From MIT Technology Review

She demonstrated that in some cases the combinatorial properties of the positive Grassmannian — the way its points sort into cells — carries over to the amplituhedron via this transformation process.

From Quanta Magazine

“I think she’s one of the masters of capturing the combinatorial nature of objects that don’t seem combinatorial,” Ardila said.

From Quanta Magazine

Recall the capacity of combinatorial coding by the receptors.

From Nautilus

With about 400 types of receptors participating in a combinatorial coding of 5,000 molecular parameters, this turns out to be a rather sophisticated task.

From Nautilus