Jump To:

• mobile
  mobile

  adjective

  capable of moving or being moved readily.
• Mobile
  Mobile

  noun

  a seaport in SW Alabama at the mouth of the Mobile River.
• -mobile
  -mobile

  a combining form extracted from automobile, occurring as the final element in compounds denoting specialized types of motorized conveyances: snowmobile; especially productive in coinages naming vehicles equipped to procure or deliver objects, provide services, etc., to people without regular access to these: bloodmobile; bookmobile; clubmobile; jazzmobile.

mobile

¹ American  

[moh-buhl, -beel, -bahyl] / ˈmoʊ bəl, -bil, -baɪl /

adjective

1. capable of moving or being moved readily.

2. Digital Technology. pertaining to or noting a cell phone, usually one with computing ability, or a portable, wireless computing device used while held in the hand, as in

3. utilizing motor vehicles for ready movement.

   a mobile library.

4. Military. permanently equipped with vehicles for transport.

5. flowing freely, as a liquid.

6. changeable or changing easily in expression, mood, purpose, etc..

   a mobile face.

7. quickly responding to impulses, emotions, etc., as the mind.

8. Sociology.

   1. characterized by or permitting the mixing of social groups.

   2. characterized by or permitting relatively free movement from one social class or level to another.

9. of or relating to a mobile.

---

noun

• mobiles
  plural

1. a piece of sculpture having delicately balanced units constructed of rods and sheets of metal or other material suspended in midair by wire or twine so that the individual parts can move independently, as when stirred by a breeze.

2. mobile phone.

3. Informal. a mobile home.

4. Citizens Band Radio Slang. a vehicle.

Mobile ² American  

[moh-beel, moh-beel] / moʊˈbil, ˈmoʊ bil /

noun

1. a seaport in SW Alabama at the mouth of the Mobile River.

2. a river in SW Alabama, formed by the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. 38 miles (61 km) long.

---

-mobile ³ American  

1. a combining form extracted from automobile, occurring as the final element in compounds denoting specialized types of motorized conveyances: snowmobile; especially productive in coinages naming vehicles equipped to procure or deliver objects, provide services, etc., to people without regular access to these: bloodmobile; bookmobile; clubmobile; jazzmobile.

---

-mobile ¹ British  

/ məʊˌbiːl /

suffix

1. indicating a vehicle designed for a particular person or purpose

   Popemobile

---

Mobile ² British  

/ ˈməʊbiːl, məʊˈbiːl /

noun

1. a port in SW Alabama, on Mobile Bay (an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico): the state's only port and its first permanent settlement, made by French colonists in 1711. Pop: 193 464 (2003 est)

---

mobile ³ British  

/ ˈməʊbaɪl /

adjective

1. having freedom of movement; movable

2. changing quickly in expression

   a mobile face

3. sociol (of individuals or social groups) moving within and between classes, occupations, and localities

   upwardly mobile

4. (of military forces) able to move freely and quickly to any given area

5. informal (postpositive) having transport available

   are you mobile tonight?

---

noun

1. 1. a sculpture suspended in midair with delicately balanced parts that are set in motion by air currents

   2. ( as modifier ) Compare stabile

      mobile sculpture

2. short for mobile phone

mobile Cultural  

1. A sculpture made up of suspended shapes that move.

---

Discover More

Alexander Calder, a twentieth-century American sculptor, is known for his mobiles.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonmobile
  adjective
• semimobile
  adjective
• unmobile
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mobiles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mobile

First recorded in 1450–1500; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin, neuter of mōbilis “movable,” contraction of assumed movibilis, equivalent to movi- (stem of movēre “to set in motion, impel, move”) + -bilis adjective suffix; see origin at move, -ble

Explanation

When something is mobile it can move or be moved easily. If you walk to the end of the block talking on your cell phone, you are a mobile being using a mobile device. A mobile is something you hang over a crib to entertain the baby, or a scale model of the universe. In 1940, the word mobile was first used to refer to a house that could be easily moved — a mobile home. If someone says to you jokingly that they "are not mobile," it means that their car is not working. It will be hard for them to be upwardly mobile, or to improve their social status, if they don't get mobile and get to work soon!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mobile Mobile -mobile mobiles

We also have a way to stay mobile in an emergency: our electric vehicle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

One resident also said mobile phone services appear to have resumed in parts of the city.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

With it came the return of mobile payment services, while residents are hoping that the banks will open their doors again from Monday.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

Now, Matthaidess said, the functions of a main command post can be distributed across several smaller, mobile nodes, anchored by a Stryker or other vehicle connected to the cloud.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

Many minutes later, they arrived at the mobile home.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

The strategy is similar to his Friday visit to Mobile, Ala., which is near Florida’s Panhandle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

Mobile medical units carrying oxygen, nebulisers, suction equipment, malaria tests and medicines visited more than 20 affected villages.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Moller-Maersk’s APM Terminals is nearly finished with an expansion of its Port of Mobile intermodal rail yard in Alabama that will double container volume.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Telekom Malaysia could also see lower costs after switching its 5G network access provider to U Mobile from Digital Nasional, he adds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

I wondered where he got this, and sought to discover the source of his attitude during the drive into Mobile.

From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin

Regardless of our religious backgrounds or belief systems, we tend to take note not only of what the pope says and does, but what he wears, what kind of -mobile he’s driven around in — and what he eats.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2016

Reform's Laura Anne Jones said the UK government message on "action to protect communities from the growing threat posed by wildfires" arrived on mobiles in English after an equivalent in the Welsh language.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

Over time, her work expanded to include glass and brass mobiles and wall hangings, which are now sold in independent shops and museum gift stores across the country.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026

The families worked closely at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where they funded a major expansion and filled its rooms with their Warhol paintings and Calder mobiles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026

The station has for several weeks been transformed into a "point of invincibility", providing a place of warmth for the population and for them to recharge their mobiles.

From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026

It is the fixity of its text that makes it an immutable mobile, and it is immutable mobiles that are needed if facts are to endure into the post-print age.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton