mutual

Pluralmutuals

1. 1
   adjective

   Felt or directed by each of two or more people toward the other in the same way.

   The two countries reached a mutual understanding after months of negotiation.

   Her admiration for the older writer turned out to be mutual.

   Similarreciprocal, shared, common

   Oppositeone-sided, unrequited

2. 2
   adjective

   Given or done by each party in return for the same from the other; reciprocal.

   The treaty rested on mutual obligations that bound both nations equally.

   Their partnership worked because the support was mutual rather than one-sided.

   Similarreciprocal, two-way, bilateral

   Oppositeone-sided, unilateral

3. 3
   adjective

   Done together or held in common by a group of people.

   The neighbors pooled their savings for the mutual benefit of the whole street.

   Years of mutual labor went into building the community garden.

   Similarcommon, shared, joint, collective

   Oppositeindividual, separate

4. 4
   adjective

   Held or possessed jointly by two or more parties.

   They discovered they had a mutual acquaintance from college.

   The lake was the mutual property of every family along its shore.

   Similarcommon, shared, joint

   Oppositeseparate, individual

   Note

   Here nothing passes back and forth; something is simply shared. A mutual friend is a third person whom two people both know. That is not a friendship between the two, and it sets this use apart from the each-to-each meaning. The shared thing can be solid, too. The Faculty of Advocates' Decisions of the Court of Sessions (1809) calls a gable and garden wall mutual with the house next door: one wall held by two owners.

5. 5
   adjective

   Owned by its members rather than by external shareholders, as with certain insurers and savings banks.

   Customers chose the mutual society because its profits flowed back to members.

   A mutual insurer answers to its policyholders instead of stock investors.

   Similarcooperative

   Note

   Ownership is the whole point of this sense when it describes a company, an insurer or a financial institution. The members own it, and outside investors do not. Both nouns grew from it by dropping the word that followed. The investment fund and the member-owned organization are each simply called a mutual, with the plural mutuals.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   An investment vehicle that pools money from many investors to buy a mix of stocks, bonds, or other assets.

   Her broker recommended a balanced mutual for long-term growth.

   Index mutuals often charge lower fees than actively managed ones.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A person who follows your social media account while you follow theirs in return.

   He became a mutual after we kept liking each other's photos.

   Several of my mutuals reposted the announcement within minutes.

   Note

   An Internet word for a two-way follow: when you follow someone and they follow you back, each of you is the other's mutual. It sits naturally with a possessive, as in "my mutuals" or "a mutual of hers," and moot means the same thing. The core idea of the each-to-each meaning survives intact; only the relationship is new.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   An organization owned by its members or customers rather than by outside shareholders.

   The cooperative bank operates as a mutual, accountable to its depositors.

   Regional mutuals once dominated the home-loan market.

   Similarcooperative, co-op

   Note

   In business, finance and insurance, the contrast that matters is who the organization answers to. A mutual belongs to its members, whether policyholders, depositors or customers, and they share in its profits and its governance. A joint-stock company answers to shareholders, who need never use its services at all. A cooperative bank run for its depositors or an insurer owned by its policyholders is the typical case.

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