1. A reversal or an alteration of the locations or order in which things stand: Some vocabulary books consist of several transpositions of word orders.
2. The placing of something in a different setting, or the recasting of something in a different language, style, or medium: It is said that the Chinese dragon is a transposition of the serpent.
3. The rewriting or playing of a piece of music in a key or at a pitch other than the original or usual key or pitch: The orchestra played various transpositions that had been changed from their original compositions.
4. In mathematics, the changing of the order of a set of things or arranging in different orders: The transpositions of a, b, and c are abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, and cba.

By subtracting 2 from both sides of the equation 2 + x = 4, a person can have a transposition that moves 2 to the other side, resulting in x = 4 - 2, which makes x equal 2.

5. A transfer of a DNA segment to a new place on the same or another chromosome: The transposition of a gene or set of genes goes from one DNA position to another one.