mobilize
Americanverb (used with object)
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mobilizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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mobilized,
past participle, past
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mobilizing
present participle
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to assemble or marshal (armed forces, military reserves, or civilian persons of military age) into readiness for active service.
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to organize or adapt (industries, transportation facilities, etc.) for service to the government in time of war.
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to marshal, bring together, prepare (power, force, wealth, etc.) for action, especially of a vigorous nature.
to mobilize one's energy.
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to increase or bring to a full stage of development.
to mobilize one's anger.
verb (used without object)
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mobilizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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mobilized,
past participle, past
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mobilizing
present participle
verb
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to prepare for war or other emergency by organizing (national resources, the armed services, etc)
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(tr) to organize for a purpose; marshal
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(tr) to put into motion, circulation, or use
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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mobilizationnoun
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mobilizernoun
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overmobilizeverb
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remobilizeverb
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mobilizableadjective
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unmobilizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mobilizesimple
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mobilizessimple
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have mobilizedperfect
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has mobilizedperfect
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am mobilizingprogressive
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are mobilizingprogressive
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is mobilizingprogressive
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have been mobilizingperfect progressive
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has been mobilizingperfect progressive
Past
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mobilizedsimple
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had mobilizedperfect
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was mobilizingprogressive
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were mobilizingprogressive
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had been mobilizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mobilize
First recorded in 1830–40; back formation from mobilization; see mobile, -ization
Explanation
Use the verb mobilize to describe preparing something — or someone — to spring into action, or to be put into use. You might mobilize the troops, or even your classmates, into action. A busy mother might mobilize her kids to grab their lunches and head out to the bus stop on time, and a detective might mobilize her resources before tracking down a wily criminal. Mobilize literally means "make mobile," and the Latin root is mobilis, "movable, pliable, or flexible."
Vocabulary lists containing mobilize
World War II
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March: Book Three
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Because They Marched
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Central banks want to know they can access and mobilize their gold when they need it.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 6, 2026
But is the intent to mobilize the public’s power, or to recruit their viewership?
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
In other words, AFT is advertising the purchasing power it hopes to mobilize against the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Black clergy in the city, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, are redoubling their efforts to mobilize voters.
From Barron's ● Aug. 8, 2026
Another common response of ours is to mobilize our immune system.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
At its best, liberalism in America focuses attention on the gap between principles and practices and mobilizes public support to close these gaps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Development Finance Corporation, a government agency that typically mobilizes capital for investment in developing countries, will provide discounted political risk insurance and guarantees for maritime transit.
From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026
In this sense, hagiography is not simply about remembering the dead: It mobilizes the living.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2025
Art mobilizes against bullets, bombs and tanks in “Porcelain War,” a documentary about how beauty not only persists amid the wreckage of warfare but serves as a necessary existential weapon of its own.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
“Look how El Lider mobilizes the people to protect his causes,” Jorge del Pino told his daughter.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Colombians outside the quake zone have mobilized in massive numbers to ease victims' suffering.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
“When that many vulnerable animals arrive before our foster network has fully mobilized, the gap between what a shelter can provide and what neonatal kittens need to survive becomes devastating,” Amster said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Texans have mobilized across the state to oppose the new developments, airing concerns that the facilities will drain local water supplies, drive up electric bills and cause noise, light and air pollution.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
However, Spanish law enforcement mobilized a mass-return effort in Ceuta, and by Friday afternoon local time, 48,300 had been sent back to Morocco, according to the Spanish government, with many more en route.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026
"That reminds me," my mother said a few weeks after New Year's when the whole household had been mobilized to look for her reading glasses on top of her head.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
The exercises include mobilizing 20,000 reserve troops, slowing mobile internet, and testing drone tactics inspired by Ukraine and Iran.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
To win, El-Sayed is counting on mobilizing a progressive base, outraged by Trump's second term, and targeting bread-and-butter issues of importance across the political divide.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
Bass said the Friday directive will not be her last executive order mobilizing resources for Boyle Heights following the fire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
In response, the U.S. is mobilizing private capital, engineering talent, entrepreneurial risk-taking and strategic government support.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
With the set fully decorated, Leni Riefenstahl was busily at work mobilizing dozens of cameramen and sound technicians, putting scores of cameras in place.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
