A property of multiplication and addition that states the addends or the factors can be added or multiplied in any order.
For example:
Addition: a + b = b + a
Addition: 4 + 3 = 7 and 3 + 4 = 7
Multiplication: a x b = b x a
Multiplication: 9 x 7 = 63 and 7 x 9 = 63
This can even be applied using a combination of both multiplication and addition as shown in the following examples. Both come to a result of 110.
[ (6 + 4) x (8 + 2) ] + (9 + 1) = (1 + 9) + [ (2 + 8) x (4 + 6) ]
Certain types of multiplication (such as matrices) aren't commutative.