mutual Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite common to or shared by two or more parties
    common.
    • a common friend
    • the mutual interests of management and labor
  2. adjective concerning each of two or more persons or things; especially given or done in return
    reciprocal.
    • reciprocal aid
    • reciprocal trade
    • mutual respect
    • reciprocal privileges at other clubs

WordNet


Mu"tu*al adjective
Etymology
F. mutuel, L. mutuus, orig., exchanged, borrowed, lent; akin to mutare to change. See Mutable.
Definitions
  1. Reciprocally acting or related; reciprocally receiving and giving; reciprocally given and received; reciprocal; interchanged; as, a mutual love, advantage, assistance, aversion, etc.
    Conspiracy and mutual promise. Sir T. More.
    Happy in our mutual help, And mutual love. Milton.
    A certain shyness on such subjects, which was mutual between the sisters. G. Eliot.
  2. Possessed, experienced, or done by two or more persons or things at the same time; common; joint; as, mutual happiness; a mutual effort. Burke.
    A vast accession of misery and woe from the mutual weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Bentley.
    ✍ This use of mutual as synonymous with common is inconsistent with the idea of interchange, or reciprocal relation, which properly belongs to it; but the word has been so used by many writers of high authority. The present tendency is toward a careful discrimination.
    Mutual, as Johnson will tell us, means something reciprocal, a giving and taking. How could people have mutual ancestors? P. Harrison.
    Syn. -- Reciprocal; interchanged; common.

Webster 1913