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• 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.

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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.

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-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.

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-mobile ¹ British  

/ məʊˌbiːl /

suffix

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

   Popemobile

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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)

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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?

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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.

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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

“I was there at the start of the mobile phone revolution,” she told me, recalling her time at Qualcomm when her team believed that mobile phones would eventually replace all phone booths.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

The Constitutional Council did not rule on a separate provision banning mobile phone use in high schools from September 1.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

The same report found 72% of French people reported being contacted on their mobile phones at least once a week, while 38% said they were called once a day.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

“With schools who don’t typically have mobile quarterbacks, I always encounter, ‘I have to see the person,’” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Nathan estimated that its diameter was as wide as Nali’s mobile home.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

It wasn’t immediately clear how or if Ergen plans to coordinate or combine the operations of MobileX and Boost Mobile.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Rep. Shomari Figures’ district lost Mobile, his hometown, reducing its Black population from about 47 percent to roughly 40 percent.

From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026

Should he beat 28-year-old Machado Garry at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, he will eclipse Anderson Silva's 16 successive wins in the UFC - a record which has stood for 13 years.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

Mobile internet speeds will be slowed for 30 minutes during air raid drills in central and northern regions, as the government seeks to expose ordinary people to communications disruptions.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

Blacks in Atlanta waged an effective boycott of Jim Crow trolley cars in 1894, and in the next decade, boycotts spread to over a dozen Southern cities, including Houston and Mobile.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

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

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

She suggested creating a family plan around device use, or designing a box to store mobiles during meals.

From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2025

Customers at a Lancashire cafe are being offered a 20% discount if they agree to leave their mobiles in a specially built "phone jail" during their visit.

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2025

"We have watched it on television, on our mobiles, but the big screen gives us goosebumps."

From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2025

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