Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Capable of moving or of being moved readily from place to place.
  • adjective Of or relating to wireless communication devices, such as cell phones.
  • adjective Capable of moving or changing quickly from one state or condition to another.
  • adjective Fluid; unstable.
  • adjective Marked by the easy intermixing of different social groups.
  • adjective Moving relatively easily from one social class or level to another.
  • adjective Tending to travel and relocate frequently.
  • adjective Flowing freely; fluid.
  • noun A type of sculpture consisting of carefully equilibrated parts that move, especially in response to air currents.
  • noun A mobile phone.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The populace; the rabble; the mob.
  • noun A name proposed as a substitute for motor-vehicle, or automobile.
  • Changeable; fickle.
  • Capable of being moved from place to place.
  • Moving; in motion; not stationary.
  • Movable; easily moving or movable; capable of facile movement; hence, changing; quickly responding to emotion or impulse.
  • noun That which is movable.
  • noun A moving principle; a mover.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The mob; the populace.
  • noun a form of sculpture having several sheets or rods of a stiff material attached to each other by thin wire or twine in a balanced and artfully arranged tree configuration, with the topmost member suspended in air from a support so that the parts may move independently when set in motion by a current of air.
  • adjective Capable of being moved; not fixed in place or condition; movable.
  • adjective Characterized by an extreme degree of fluidity; moving or flowing with great freedom
  • adjective Easily moved in feeling, purpose, or direction; excitable; changeable; fickle.
  • adjective Changing in appearance and expression under the influence of the mind.
  • adjective (Physiol.) Capable of being moved, aroused, or excited; capable of spontaneous movement.
  • adjective Capable of moving readily, or moving frequenty from place to place.
  • adjective Having motor vehicles to permit movement from place to place.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Capable of being moved.
  • adjective By agency of mobile phones.
  • noun A sculpture or decorative arrangement made of items hanging so that they can move independently from each other (Wikipedia).
  • noun A mobile phone (Wikipedia).
  • noun Something that can move.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective moving or capable of moving readily (especially from place to place)
  • adjective migratory
  • noun a river in southwestern Alabama; flows into Mobile Bay
  • adjective affording change (especially in social status)
  • adjective having transportation available
  • adjective capable of changing quickly from one state or condition to another
  • noun a port in southwestern Alabama on Mobile Bay
  • noun sculpture suspended in midair whose delicately balanced parts can be set in motion by air currents

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mōbilis, from *movibilis, from movēre, to move; see meuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mōbilis ("easy to be moved, moveable"), from moveō ("move").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Some folks have asked for a mobile version of wordie. This seems like the appropriate place to talk about it. What features do you most want in a mobile version? What do we even mean by "mobile version?" A very simple one-column layout so that it's readable on mobile devices, like treos? The ability to add words or do searches via sms? Other things?

    October 15, 2007

  • I want something that is legible and yet will allow me to add words to my lists. At this point I'm more concerned about that than about comments. So often I'm out and about and see or hear an awesome word that I want to add to a list!

    October 17, 2007

  • I just added a super basic mini version of Wordie, optimized for small-display devices like cell phone browsers and smartphones:

    http://wordie.org/m

    After it's been tested some I'll add a link in the 'tools' section and blog it. Would love to hear any feedback, especially from folks with different kinds of phones. Works fine on my Treo 650, but that's all I've tried it with.

    Next up: adding words via SMS.

    November 16, 2007

  • I get an "Internal Server Error" message on my Nokia 6120c

    November 16, 2007

  • Oops, sorry about that. Should be fixed now, if anyone else wants to give mini-wordie a shot.

    November 17, 2007

  • I'd love to. Anyone want to buy me a new mobile device? ;-)

    November 17, 2007

  • When a mob moves about.

    December 2, 2008

  • Just went mobile, with a G1. It works pretty well with regular Wordie because I can line it up on a column and scroll down. The thing I miss is being able to search within a page.

    May 10, 2009

  • A mobile is a "type of sculpture consisting of carefully equilibrated parts that move, especially in response to air currents." - American Heritage Dictionary.

    From Wikipedia: "The sculptor Alexander Calder is well known for his mobiles. Calder invented the mobile in 1931. Marcel Duchamp suggested the name "mobile". Mobiles are also popular in the nursery, where they hang over cribs to give infants something to entertain them . . . ."

    Cf. stabile.

    June 16, 2010

  • May contain Memphis blues.

    June 16, 2010

  • Next up: adding words via SMS.

    June 16, 2010