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US /ˈmoʊ.bəl/ UK /ˈməʊ.baɪl/
Freq #2888

Meanings

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Thesaurus

Forms mobiles
Derived forms airmobileblingmobiledorsomobilehypermobilehypomobilemadwaremashmobmobile-firstmobilecastingmobilegeddonmobileless

Common collocations

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mōbilis (“easy to be moved, moveable”), from moveō (“move”). The video-gaming sense was coined by Richard Bartle to describe NPCs or creatures capable of moving "under their own power" in the 1978 video game Multi-User Dungeon. Bartle retracted an earlier claim of his that it was from the kinetic sculpture sense of mobile (for the "unpredictable but limited" motion of the hanging ornaments).

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