immobility
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of immobility
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English word from Late Latin word immōbilitās. See im- 2, mobility
Explanation
Immobility is the state of not being able to move around. If you fall out of a tree and break your arms and legs, then you will have to put up with months of immobility while your bones heal. Immobility could mean the condition of not being able to move, like that poor mouse stuck in a glue trap whose immobility will lead to its starvation. Immobility can also just mean the state of not moving. If you are entranced by a beautiful sunset, you might stand with quiet immobility while watching the sky.
Vocabulary lists containing immobility
And Then There Were None
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Feed
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As I Lay Dying
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hinds, meanwhile, masterfully shows an affable partner’s emotional immobility.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 20, 2026
Lowry’s rectilinear buildings suggest immobility beyond time, and urban orderliness without elegance.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025
"If I’m being honest, I also didn’t want to admit to the depth of my disability. I had muscle spasms and immobility on my left side, and I tried to hide it," she said.
From Salon • Sep. 6, 2024
For Neubauer, it was exciting to see that, next to the described laziness or immobility of drones, the drones have synchronized hyperactivity periods, in which they are the fastest individuals in the colony.
From Science Daily • Oct. 11, 2023
Esteban Trueba spent four months wrapped in bandages, stiff as a board from splints, patches, and hooks, in a dreadful torment of itching and immobility, and consumed by impatience.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
