movable
Americanadjective
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capable of being moved; not fixed in one place, position, or posture.
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Law. (of property)
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not permanent in reference to place; capable of being moved without injury.
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personal, as distinguished from real.
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changing from one date to another in different years.
a movable holiday.
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(of type or matrices) able to be rearranged.
noun
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an article of furniture that is not fixed in place.
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Law. Often movables. an article of personal property not attached to land.
adjective
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able to be moved or rearranged; not fixed
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(esp of religious festivals such as Easter) varying in date from year to year
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(usually speltmoveable) law denoting or relating to personal property as opposed to realty
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printing (of type) cast singly so that each character is on a separate piece of type suitable for composition by hand, as founder's type
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of movable
1350–1400; Middle English mevable, movable < Anglo-French movable. See move, -able
Explanation
When you can change or shift the position of something, it's movable. With two flat tires and a bent wheel, your bike is no longer movable. Movable comes from move and its Latin source, movere, "set in motion." If you can move something, it's movable. That can mean physically moving it, the way you relocate a movable screen to divide a room. When events are movable, their dates can change. This is the source of "a movable feast," a religious holiday that falls annually on the same day of the week but a varying date. Easter is one example of a movable holiday.
Vocabulary lists containing movable
The Renaissance and Reformation, Lessons 3–4
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Chapters 10–12
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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.
Instead, they learned only two separate things beforehand: that the blue flower provided a reward and that the ball was a movable, harmless object.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
The aim is then for the robot to maneuver around the telescope and latch on with three movable arms.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
One Army initiative would amass thousands of missiles fired from movable containers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Bishop placed movable cameras with different focal lengths on opposite sides of the ring to capture the action, almost always with the ropes visible in the foreground.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
He lined fire trucks and emergency vehicles on one side of his bed and vans and trucks with movable doors on the other side.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
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.
