portable

American  

[pawr-tuh-buhl, pohr-] / ˈpɔr tə bəl, ˈpoʊr- /

adjective

1. capable of being transported or conveyed.

   a portable stage.

2. easily carried or conveyed by hand.

   I found a lightweight, portable propane stove for our trekking holiday.

3. Computers. (of data sets, software, etc.) capable of being used on different computer systems.

4. Obsolete. endurable.

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noun

portables plural

1. something that is easily carried by hand, especially as distinguished from a counterpart that is harder or less convenient to move.

   Of their three television sets, one is a portable.

portable British  

/ ˈpɔːtəbəl /

adjective

1. able to be carried or moved easily, esp by hand

2. (of software, files, etc) able to be transferred from one type of computer system to another

3. archaic able to be endured; bearable

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noun

1. an article designed to be readily carried by hand, such as a television, typewriter, etc

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• portability
  noun
• nonportable
  adjective
• unportable
  adjective
• portably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• portables
  plural

Etymology

Origin of portable

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Late Latin portābilis; see port ⁵, -able

Explanation

If something's portable, you can easily take it with you . You may carry your portable computer with you from class to class because it's small, light, and fits easily in your backpack. First appearing around 1400, portable stems from the Latin word portare, meaning "to carry." Used as an adjective, portable describes something you can carry around easily. Used as a noun, it means a smaller, easy-to-carry version of something, like a computer or television. On a trip, you might take your portable so you can watch movies in the car. Before computers became popular, you might have carried around a lightweight typewriter called a portable.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

portable portables

Others, including businesses within the same strip mall, donated portable swamp coolers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

The funds in an HSA are portable — meaning they stay with you no matter where you work — and can be used to pay for qualified medical expenses.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026

The FDA team probed everything from Taylor’s irrigation water to portable restrooms on farms and medications provided to members of the company’s harvest crews.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

The popular series started out on Nintendo's portable Game Boy console in 1996, and has found modern success on people's phones.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Even Dutch stations carried mostly war news, and that we could hear just as well on the small portable radio we kept now in the dining room, a gift from Pickwick the Christmas before.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Built into a refurbished shipping container, it’s filled with everything from tiny Walkman-style portables to colorful, number-flip clock radios and, naturally, boomboxes of all sizes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026

“We had portables, we had really crowded classes, at one point a classroom was on a stage.”

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 25, 2022

Valve could build a Half-Life exclusive to portables like this, if not exclusive to the Steam Deck itself.

From The Verge ● Jul. 18, 2021

The only question portables raise for me are logistical.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2020

I start munching on my snack of cut-up apples before we even get to the portables, and I’m eating them so fast, I start to choke.

From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée

Related Words

• compact
• convenient
• handy
• lightweight