mutable

[ myoo-tuh-buhl ]

adjective

1. liable or subject to change or alteration.

   Synonyms: variable, changeable

2. given to changing; constantly changing; fickle or inconstant:

   the mutable ways of fortune.

   Synonyms: unsteady, unsettled, vacillating, unstable

   Antonyms: stable

3. Computers. (in object-oriented programming) of or noting an object having properties whose values can change while the object itself maintains a unique identity.

mutable

/ ˈmjuːtəbəl /

adjective

1. able to or tending to change
2. astrology of or relating to four of the signs of the zodiac, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, which are associated with the quality of adaptability Compare cardinal fixed

Derived Forms

• ˈmutably, adverb
• ˌmutaˈbility, noun

Other Words From

• mu·ta·bil·i·ty [myoo-t, uh, -, bil, -i-tee] mu·ta·ble·ness noun
• mu·ta·bly adverb
• hy·per·mu·ta·ble adjective
• hy·per·mu·ta·bly adverb
• non·mut·a·ble adjective
• non·mut·a·bly adverb
• un·mu·ta·ble adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mutable¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin mūtābilis, equivalent to mūtā(re) “to change” + -bilis -ble

Word History and Origins

Origin of mutable¹

C14: from Latin mūtābilis fickle, from mūtāre to change

Example Sentences

After just two episodes, it’s hard to get a sense of how mutable The Problem’s format will be.

From Time

Warnecke, however, is skeptical about inferring phylogenetic relationships from viral sequences, which are notoriously mutable.

From Quanta Magazine

I knew vaguely that the history was slow and unremarkable during centuries of rural village life, then tumultuous and mutable as the area was enveloped by the burgeoning city.

From Washington Post

In McAfee’s work, formal portraits become as mutable and dynamic as makeshift cellphone footage.

From Washington Post

Vortices can be remarkably stable, and yet they are also surprisingly mutable.

From Quanta Magazine

The mutable-Earth sign of Virgo is about negotiating virtue and vice.

From The Daily Beast

The comic Flip Wilson used to use “The devil made me do it” as an endlessly mutable punch line.

From The Daily Beast

Yet however sweet the hours, they pass away, and it is not much memory can save from the mutable, happy days of love.

From Project Gutenberg

One goes to the marriage bed, another to the grave; and all is mutable, uncertain, and transitory.

From Project Gutenberg

His face was irradiated, his cold eyes glowed with a warmth and fire that more mercurial and mutable natures can never know.

From Project Gutenberg

Something whispered that the happiness we at present enjoyed was set on mutable foundations.

From Project Gutenberg

As to the motives which induce men to change the place of their abode, these must unavoidably be fleeting and mutable.

From Project Gutenberg