Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Biology Moving or having the power to move spontaneously.
- adjective Psychology Of or relating to mental imagery that arises primarily from sensations of bodily movement and position rather than from visual or auditory sensations.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Capable of spontaneous motion; executing automatic or apparently voluntary movements: as, a motile flagellum; motile cilia, spores, etc.
- noun One in whose mind motor images are predominant or especially distinct.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Biol.) Exhibiting, or capable of, spontaneous movement
- adjective Producing motion.
- noun (Psychol.) A person whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action, such as incipient pronunciation of words, muscular innervations, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective biology having the
power tomove spontaneously - adjective psychology of or relating to those
mental images that arise from thesensations ofbodily movement andposition
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun one whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action
- adjective (of spores or microorganisms) capable of movement
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Crowds are mobile, but they are also motile, that is to say, fickle.
The Brussels Journal - The Voice of Conservatism in Europe 2009
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Apparently most people do, including the author, who nevertheless marvels how almost 90 percent of American nuclear households have multiple cell phones, despite the fact that studies keep demonstrating cell phone use by men is associated with less "motile" sperm.
OpEdNews - Quicklink: Gadgets that make you look like a jerk 2008
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Apparently most people do, including the author, who nevertheless marvels how almost 90 percent of American nuclear households have multiple cell phones, despite the fact that studies keep demonstrating cell phone use by men is associated with less 'motile' sperm.
OpEdNews - Quicklink: Gadgets that make you look like a jerk 2008
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Longevity also rose steadily with the percentage of a man's sperm that were "motile", meaning they moved around normally, and the percentage of normally formed sperm.
News24 Top Stories 2009
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DNA evidence from sperm found in her vaginal cavity was shown not to have come from Mr. Bryant and, being motile, had to have been placed there at the time of or subsequent to the Bryant encounter.
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Vertebrates as a clade might not exist, but motile bilaterally symmetrical organisms seem plausible, perhaps even with sensory organs housed in a bony head.
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They found something interesting: near the tail of the embryo, the PSM cells were more motile than they were near the front of the PSM.
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They found something interesting: near the tail of the embryo, the PSM cells were more motile than they were near the front of the PSM.
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They found something interesting: near the tail of the embryo, the PSM cells were more motile than they were near the front of the PSM.
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Bacteria become non-motile if you remove a component from it's core.
chained_bear commented on the word motile
Wait... by WeirdNET's second definition, isn't that everyone? Well... everyone except psychics?
August 2, 2008
yarb commented on the word motile
And mathematicians. And those annoying arch-rationalists who plagued my undergraduate years.
August 2, 2008
dontcry commented on the word motile
I often think of sperm when I see this word... but sometimes I think of The Who's "Going Mobile" -- then I get an earworm.
August 2, 2008
1286343606 commented on the word motile
Dr. Beverly Crusher used this word discussing cellular residue.
July 18, 2010