Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Biology Moving or having the power to move spontaneously: motile spores.
- adj. Psychology Of or relating to mental imagery that arises primarily from sensations of bodily movement and position rather than from visual or auditory sensations.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Capable of spontaneous motion; executing automatic or apparently voluntary movements: as, a motile flagellum; motile cilia, spores, etc.
- n. One in whose mind motor images are predominant or especially distinct.
Wiktionary
- adj. biology having the power to move spontaneously
- adj. psychology of or relating to those mental images that arise from the sensations of bodily movement and position
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Biol.) Exhibiting, or capable of, spontaneous movement
- adj. Producing motion.
- n. (Psychol.) A person whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action, such as incipient pronunciation of words, muscular innervations, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. one whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action
- adj. (of spores or microorganisms) capable of movement
Etymologies
- From Latin motus. (Wiktionary)
- Latin mōtus, motion (from past participle of movēre, to move; see motion) + -ile1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Crowds are mobile, but they are also motile, that is to say, fickle.”
“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
“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
“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.”
“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.”
“Vertebrates as a clade might not exist, but motile bilaterally symmetrical organisms seem plausible, perhaps even with sensory organs housed in a bony head.”
“Bacteria become non-motile if you remove a component from it's core.”
“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.”
“Proteus mirabilis has not motile and this one, or otherwise disturbed phenotype when FliL is turned off Belas & Suvanasuthi 2005.”
Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb
“When the engine no longer works “non-motile phenotype”, was the gene for the motor function is essential.”
Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘motile’.
-
phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
multiloculate, multilocation, multiflorous, multifid, multifarious, multicipital, multeity, multarticulate, multanimous, mulse, mullock, mullion and 898 more...
-
The Whole Ball of Wax
Feel free to wax poetic.
the whole ball of..., wax poetic, wax, beeswax, ambergris, cedar waxwing, sealing wax, earwax, paraffin, bougie, epicuticular wax, waxing gibbous moon and 192 more...
-
Lifehacking
Start with the effect, the what; signal-patch known-belief spirit. "Write my program, routine me." New cue vs brand loyalty. Ritual Ceremony Design Technologies, Inc.
confusion, misdirection, fractionation, disequilibrium, relaxation, repetition, impassioned, intensity, suddenly, shock, concentration, focus and 118 more...
-
Vocab [General]
No particular specification to this list.
philology, etymology, atavistic, proscribe, inchoate, vulgate, abstruse, agnate, anodize, anthropomorphic, assiduous, augur and 89 more...
-
Most Obscure Words
acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
-
Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
-
Learned
ambergris, andiron, aphelion, austral, bellicose, boreal, bravura, chaff, chicanery, creditable, credulous, decamp and 223 more...
-
Consider the Lobster
By David Foster Wallace
percussive, discursive, lugubrious, docent, assiduously, berm, wag, bonmot, imbroglio, telegraph, fissile, rube and 220 more...
-
envelopingshadow's Words
denouement, kitsch, acrimonious, macabre, anachronism, atavism, ennui, parse, lugubrious, holism, brusque, commiserate and 164 more...
-
What David Foster Wallace circled in ...
ablative, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, ailanthus, aleatory, alfresco, algolagnia and 474 more...
-
learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
-
What David Foster Wallace Circled in ...
http://www.slate.com/id/2250784/
ablative absolute, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, aleatory, ailanthus, alfresco, algolagnia and 482 more...
-
Trump that synonym!
Better alternatives for common words.
ex cathedra, screed, de rigueur, palpable, wheedle, piebald, incongruity, cassandra, xantippe, ebullient, exuberant, fainéant and 178 more...
-
Mike
M
malefaction, metonymy, malapropism, mawkish, morpheme, mercantile, moxie, mellifluous, memorat, mugwump, minatory, mendacious and 25 more...
-
words of merge and emerge
merge, emerging, immerse, submerge, merganser, mesh, mustard, deep, depth, dip, python, typhon and 80 more...
-
herotuesday's Words
butyraceous, thrasonical, turgid, ululate, irenic, punctilio, discombobulate, ecdysiast, formicate, favonian, agnate, erubescence and 614 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for motile.
Nathon Hay Dr. Beverly Crusher used this word discussing cellular residue. Jul 18, 2010
dontcry 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. Aug 1, 2008
yarb And mathematicians. And those annoying arch-rationalists who plagued my undergraduate years. Aug 1, 2008
chained_bear Wait... by WeirdNET's second definition, isn't that everyone? Well... everyone except psychics? Aug 1, 2008