movable

American  

[moo-vuh-buhl] / ˈmu və bəl /

Or moveable

adjective

1. capable of being moved; not fixed in one place, position, or posture.

2. Law. (of property)

   1. not permanent in reference to place; capable of being moved without injury.

   2. personal, as distinguished from real.

3. changing from one date to another in different years.

   a movable holiday.

4. (of type or matrices) able to be rearranged.

---

noun

1. an article of furniture that is not fixed in place.

2. Law. Often movables. an article of personal property not attached to land.

movable British  

/ ˈmuːvəbəl /

adjective

1. able to be moved or rearranged; not fixed

2. (esp of religious festivals such as Easter) varying in date from year to year

3. (usually speltmoveable) law denoting or relating to personal property as opposed to realty

4. 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

1. (often plural) a movable article, esp a piece of furniture

Other Word Forms

• movability noun
• movableness noun
• movably adverb
• nonmovability noun
• nonmovable adjective
• nonmovableness noun
• nonmovably adverb
• unmovable adjective

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.

Example Sentences

Irish-born, France-based architect and designer Eileen Gray gets her own gallery, which includes her late-1920s movable table, comprising two circular platforms held together by a bent-rectangle handle.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025

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

The memories of Linda McCartney, Wings’ mainstay Denny Laine, and former lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch—all of whom are now deceased—are well-represented here, as is the movable feast of musicians who filled out Wings’ ranks.

From Salon • Nov. 3, 2025

He, his bus, its 20 passengers and one conductor were on the edge of the southern bascule - a movable section of road - which was continuing to rise.

From BBC • Dec. 30, 2024

Expert and reliable packers and movers were en-gaged to convey the furniture, carpets, pictures— everything movable, in short—to places or security.

From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin