mobility
Americannoun
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the ability to move physically
a knee operation has restricted his mobility
mobility is part of physical education
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sociol (of individuals or social groups) movement within or between classes and occupations See also vertical mobility horizontal mobility
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time that a resident of a secure unit is allowed to spend outside the unit, as preparation for an eventual return to society
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mobility
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English mobilite, from Latin mōbilitās. See mobile, -ity
Compare meaning
How does mobility compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Mobility is the ability to move freely. If your basketball injury causes you to lose mobility in your knee, that means you can’t move it very well. Mobility often refers to whether you can move an injured body part, like a joint or a limb, but it can also describe movement in general. If you have great mobility on the tennis court, that means you move freely and easily, running down shots with ease. Mobility can also describe movement between different social or economic levels. Your fancy new job may offer opportunities for upward mobility.
Vocabulary lists containing mobility
Human Geography - Middle School
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Human Geography - High School
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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:
In a study involving 194 patients, researchers found that a treatment using tiny particles that dissolve within hours was associated with substantial reductions in knee pain and improvements in mobility.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
Sarfraz Maredia, Uber’s global head of autonomous mobility & delivery, will leave the company Nov. 16, he wrote in a Tuesday post on LinkedIn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
The two sides have been negotiating a new post-Brexit food and drink deal, a youth mobility scheme and an agreement on emissions tradings.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
Citroen chief executive Xavier Chardon described the new car as "a modern, ingenious and refreshing response to the mobility challenges of tomorrow".
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
My world was filled with hopeful, hardworking people who were obsessed with their own upward mobility.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Key findings reveal a consensus among the professionals about the inevitability of various forms of climate mobilities in South Florida.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
Climate mobilities, while presenting benefits, also pose significant challenges.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
"We are in talks about the 11 countries where we are present ... it is up to Nissan to decide," Nicolas Schottey said at the Autonomy Mobility conference about new mobilities in Paris.
From Reuters ● Mar. 23, 2023
My first time at the Voice, in 1966, was a fluke typical of the overnight mobilities of life and work in New York then.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 2, 2018
He has studied in a very ingenious manner, not only the mobilities, but also the law of recombination which regulates the spontaneous return of the gas to its normal state.
From The New Physics and Its Evolution by Lucien Poincaré
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
