mobility

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mə(ʊ)ˈbɪlɪti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /moʊˈbɪlɪti/

Etymology 1

From Middle French mobilité, and its source, Latin mōbilitās (“mobility”).

Noun

mobility (countable and uncountable, plural mobilities)

1. The ability to move; capacity for movement. [from 15th c.]

   Synonym: mobileness

   • 2015 June 15, Hadley Freeman, The Guardian:

     I find the enduring existence of high heels both a frustrating mystery and a testament to the triumph of women’s neuroses over their mobility.

   • 2022 December 14, David Turner, “The Edwardian Christmas getaway...”, in RAIL, number 972, page 32:

     In the late 19th and early 20th century, the festive season was also a period of great mobility before, during and after Christmas Day. But the railways kept working.

2. (now chiefly literary) A tendency to sudden change; mutability, changeableness. [from 16th c.]
3. (military) The ability of a military unit to move or be transported to a new position. [from 18th c.]
4. (chiefly physics) The degree to which particles of a liquid or gas are in movement. [from 19th c.]
5. (chiefly sociology) The ability of people to move between different social levels or professional occupations. [from 19th c.]
   • 2020 July 28, Thomas B. Edsall, “Trump Is Trying to Bend Reality to His Will”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     The difficulty of rising up the economic ladder is reflected in the decline in mobility in the United States. […] The frustration over the lack of mobility is particularly acute for those without college degrees.

Antonyms

• immobility

Derived terms

• automobility
• dysmobility
• economic mobility
• electromobility
• e-mobility
• emobility
• hypermobility
• hypomobility
• intermobility
• macromobility
• micromobility
• mobicentric
• mobility kill
• mobility scooter
• palaeomobility
• paleomobility
• personal mobility device
• personal transportation mobility
• popmobility
• retromobility
• social mobility
• sustainable mobililty
• thermomobility
• upward mobility
• urban mobility

Related terms

terms related to mobility (noun)

• mobile
• mobilization
• mobilize
• move

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *mew- (0 c, 3 e)

Translations

ability to move

• Asturian: movilidá f
• Bulgarian: подвижност (bg) f (podvižnost)
• Catalan: mobilitat (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 流動性 / 流动性 (zh) (liúdòngxìng)

• Czech: pohyblivost f, mobilita f
• Finnish: liikkuvuus (fi)
• French: mobilité (fr) f
• Galician: mobilidade (gl) f
• Georgian: მოძრაობა (ka) (moʒraoba), მობილობა (mobiloba)
• German: Mobilität (de) f
• Greek: κινητικότητα (el) f (kinitikótita)
• Indonesian: mobilitas (id)
• Interlingua: mobilitate
• Irish: luaineacht f, lúth m
• Italian: mobilità (it) f
• Japanese: 可動 (ja) (kadō), 動きやすさ (ugokiyasusa)
• Latin: mōbilitās f
• Latvian: mobilitāte f, kustīgums m
• Macedonian: подвижност f (podvižnost)
• Polish: mobilność (pl) f, ruchomość (pl) f
• Portuguese: mobilidade (pt) f
• Russian: подви́жность (ru) f (podvížnostʹ), моби́льность (ru) f (mobílʹnostʹ)
• Slovak: mobilita, pohyblivosť
• Spanish: movilidad (es) f
• Swedish: rörlighet (sv) c
• Tagalog: pagkakakilos
• Turkish: devingenlik (tr), hareketlilik (tr)

ability of a military unit to move or be transported to a new position

• Bulgarian: мобилност f (mobilnost)
• Finnish: liikkuvuus (fi)
• Indonesian: mobilitas (id)
• Japanese: 機動 (ja) (kidō)
• Slovak: mobilita

ease of movement between social levels

• Finnish: liikkuvuus (fi)
• German: Mobilität (de) f
• Indonesian: mobilitas (id)
• Japanese: 流動性 (ryūdōsei)
• Slovak: mobilita

See also

• congestion

Etymology 2

Blend of mob +‎ nobility

Noun

mobility

1. (UK, obsolete, slang, humorous) The mob; the common people or rabble.
   • John Dryden, Don Sebastian, iv. 1

     She singled you out with her eye as commander-in-chief of the mobility.

   • quoted in 1999, Kimberly K. Smith, The Dominion of Voice (page 41)

     Thus, while Morris contemptuously characterized committees of correspondence, popular assemblies, and public debate as the actions of the "mobility" (the mob), John Adams announced that the destruction of a stamp office by a mob "was thought an honorable and glorious act" of the people.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary