mutable

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin mutabilis (“liable to change”); mutate +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmjuːtəbl̩/

Adjective

mutable (comparative more mutable, superlative most mutable)

1. Changeable, dynamic, evolutive; inclined to change, evolve, mutate.
   • 1531, Thomas Elyot, “Of Constance or Stabilitie”, in The boke named the gouernour‎^[1], book III, page e4v:

     Vndoughtedly constaunce is an honourable vertue, as inconstance is reprochefull and odious. Wherfore that man whiche is mutable for euerye occasyon, muste nedes often repente hym, and in moche repentance is nat only moche foly, but also great detriment: whiche euery wyse man wyll eschue if he can.

   • 1608, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, [Act III, scene i]:

     For the mutable ranke-ſented Meynie, / Let them regard me, as I doe not flatter, / And therein behold themſelues.

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 83, lines 415–420:

     Maſters commands come with a power reſiſtleſs / To ſuch as owe them abſolute ſubjection; / And for a life who will not change his purpoſe? / (So mutable are all the ways of men) / Yet this be ſure, in nothing to comply / Scandalous or forbidden in our Law.

   • 1864, Rob S. Candlish, “The Fatherhood of God”, in The British and Foreign Evangelical Review, volume XIV, London: James Nisbet & Co., published 1865, page 748:

     It is in vain to interpose the explanation that the sonship was mutable. The Broad School do not say so ; and in so far they are consistent, for they recognise no power to produce the mutation.

2. (programming, of a variable) Having a value that is changeable during program execution.
   • 2011, David Flanagan, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide:

     A value of a mutable type can change. Objects and arrays are mutable: a JavaScript program can change the values of object properties and array elements. Numbers, booleans, null, and undefined are immutable.

Antonyms

• immutable

Translations

changeable

• Afrikaans: wispelturig
• Bulgarian: проме́нлив (bg) m (proménliv)
• Finnish: muuttuva (fi)
• French: mutable (fr) m or f
• German: mutabel (de), veränderlich (de), veränderbar (de)
• Hungarian: ingatag (hu)
• Latin: mūtābilis
• Manx: yn-chaghlaa
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: zmienny (pl) m
• Portuguese: mutável (pt)
• Romanian: muabil (ro)
• Russian: изме́нчивый (ru) (izménčivyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: promjenljiv m
• Spanish: mutable
• Turkish: değişebilir (tr), değişken (tr)
• Vietnamese: có thể thay đổi

See also

• alterable

Noun

mutable (plural mutables)

1. Something mutable; a variable or value that can change.

Homophones

• muteable

Anagrams

• atumble

---

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /my.tabl/

Adjective

mutable (plural mutables)

1. mutable, changeable
2. (programming) mutable

Further reading

• “mutable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

---

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muˈtable/ [muˈt̪a.β̞le]

Adjective

mutable m or f (masculine and feminine plural mutables)

1. Rare form of mudable.

Further reading

• “mutable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014