mutable

[ myoo-tuh-buhl ]
See synonyms for: mutablemutability on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. liable or subject to change or alteration.

  2. given to changing; constantly changing; fickle or inconstant: the mutable ways of fortune.

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

Origin of mutable

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin mūtābilis, equivalent to mūtā(re) “to change” + -bilis -ble

Other words for mutable

Opposites for mutable

Other words from mutable

  • mu·ta·bil·i·ty [myoo-tuh-bil-i-tee] /ˌmyu təˈbɪl ɪ ti/ 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

Words Nearby mutable

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use mutable in a sentence

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

    Your Week: What the Stars Hold | Starsky + Cox | September 4, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • The comic Flip Wilson used to use “The devil made me do it” as an endlessly mutable punch line.

    The Grim Truth About Africa | Stanley Crouch | April 21, 2010 | 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.

    The Man Between | Amelia E. Barr
  • One goes to the marriage bed, another to the grave; and all is mutable, uncertain, and transitory.

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

    The Beauty | Mrs. Wilson Woodrow
  • Something whispered that the happiness we at present enjoyed was set on mutable foundations.

    Wieland; or The Transformation | Charles Brockden Brown
  • As to the motives which induce men to change the place of their abode, these must unavoidably be fleeting and mutable.

    Wieland; or The Transformation | Charles Brockden Brown

British Dictionary definitions for mutable

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 (def. 9), fixed (def. 10)

Origin of mutable

1
C14: from Latin mūtābilis fickle, from mūtāre to change

Derived forms of mutable

  • mutability or rare mutableness, noun
  • mutably, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012