mutability
Americannoun
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the quality of being liable to undergo change or alteration.
With the realization of cancer's mutability, they now fear it might not be the same disease in everyone.
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the quality of constantly changing; transient or transitory quality.
National borders can have a permanence that contrasts with the almost infinite mutability of the cultures contained within them.
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Computers. (in object-oriented programming) the characteristic of an object having properties whose values can change while the object itself maintains a unique identity.
The mutability of the "sales report" object allows properties like sales period and salesperson to be updated without losing the reference to the report elsewhere in the application.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mutability
First recorded in 1400–50; from French mutabilité, from Latin mūtābilitāt-, stem of mūtābilitās “changeability,” equivalent to mūtābili(s) “changeable” ( see mutable ( def. )) + -tās -ty 2 ( def. )
Explanation
Mutability means the quality of being changeable. Caterpillars, on their way to becoming butterflies, display a great deal of mutability. An easy way to remember mutability is to think about a word it sounds like, mutant. A mutant is someone who has been changed, irrevocably, so mutability is the ability to change. It's the mutability of the Internet that makes it so wonderful and confusing at the same time. You might tell your friend who was sweet and kind yesterday, but is mean and awful today, that you wish she didn't have such a tendency to mutability.
Vocabulary lists containing mutability
Novel Study: Frankenstein, Preface–Chapter 13
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Novel Study: 1984, Part 2
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Henry V
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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.
That kind of mutability within the character — it’s kinda like what I was saying about the artist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
First-time feature director Rachael Abigail Holder’s cinematic postcard to loss and mutability is an attractive tableau of aged brownstones and new hot spots, canopied streets and hilly parks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2025
The subjects’ mutability echoes the local artist’s slippery style, which incorporates collage and shifts easily from realism to expressionism.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2023
The stadium shares a cavernous mutability with the Park Avenue Armory, where Pierre Audi, the Aix Festival’s director, is the artistic leader.
From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2022
He cared only for the material side of things: the nature of elements, the essence and mutability of matter.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
