The death sentence was commutable to life imprisonment.是什么意思？

The death sentence was commutable to life imprisonment.

死刑可以由终身监禁代替.

the

art. 指已提到的人（物），指说话人与听者已知的人（物），用于独一无二的事物前，与形容词最高级和序数词连用；

例句
He did have a real knowledge of the country...
他对该国的确知之甚多。

death

n. 死亡，（某种）死法，死亡方式，病危，死神；

例句
The following year Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty for murder...
议会于翌年表决对谋杀罪废除死刑。

sentence

n. 句子，宣判；vt. 宣判，判决；

例句
Heath's appeal against the sentence was later successful...
希思对判决不服提出上诉，后来胜诉了。

was

v. 用来表示某人或某物即主语本身，用来表示某人或某物属于某一群体或有某种性质（ be的过去式 ），在，存在，不受干扰；

例句
There was a terrible sadness in her eyes...
她眼神中流露出深深的悲伤。

commutable

adj. 可取代的；

例句
A pension is often commutable into a lump sum.
养老金常可改为一次性总付款.

to

prep. 向，朝着，到，关于，属于；adv. 朝一个方向的，到某种状态，关闭；

例句
I suggest you leave it to an expert...
我建议你把它留给专家来解决。

life

n. 生活，生计，生命，性命，一生，寿命，人生，尘世；

例句
In his later life he became even more absent-minded.
他晚年变得愈加健忘了。

imprisonment

n. 关押，监禁，“imprison”的派生；

例句
His wife was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for aiding and abetting him...
他的妻子作为他的从犯被判入狱7年。