portable
PAW-tuh-buhl
Portable (adj) means Light and compact enough to be carried or moved easily. Example: “A portable heater is handy for a cold garden shed.”
adj
1
Light and compact enough to be carried or moved easily.
"A portable heater is handy for a cold garden shed."
"My laptop is thin and portable, so I take it everywhere."
"She bought a portable speaker for the beach."
2
Able to be transferred between employers, plans, or systems.
"Make sure your health insurance is portable if you change jobs."
"Portable qualifications let you work in different countries without retraining."
"Even though Houston’s moment was already fading by the late 2000s, the city’s hip-hop culture proved to be endlessly portable and disseminatable."
— Jon Caramanica, Pimp C in a Journalist’s Back Pages (2015)
"The new pension scheme is fully portable between jobs."
How to use portable
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishEasy to carry, or able to be moved/transferred from one place, job, or system to another.
Common pairings
portable device
portable pension
lightweight and portable
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Word forms
- Comparative
- more portable
- Superlative
- most portable
Fill the gap
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A _____ heater is handy for a cold garden shed.
Etymology
From Latin portabilis, built from portare ("to carry") plus the suffix "-able".
Synonyms
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movable
lightweight
compact
mobile
transferable
bearable
carriable
fieldable
grab-and-go
handcarried
portatile
portative
Antonyms
Related words
Rhymes for portable
See all rhymes for portable →Frequently asked questions
What does “portable” mean?
The word “portable” means light and compact enough to be carried or moved easily. In plain terms, easy to carry, or able to be moved/transferred from one place, job, or system to another.
How do you pronounce “portable”?
“Portable” is pronounced PAW-tuh-buhl (/ˈpɔɹtəbəl/ in IPA).
How do you use “portable” in a sentence?
Here is “portable” used in a sentence: “She bought a portable speaker for the beach.”
What is another word for “portable”?
Words with a similar meaning to “portable” include bearable, carriable, fieldable, grab-and-go, handcarried and portatile.
What is the opposite of “portable”?
The opposite of “portable” — its antonyms — are anchored, fixed, immobile, immotile and immovable.
What part of speech is “portable”?
“Portable” is an adjective.
Where does the word “portable” come from?
The word “portable” comes from Latin. From Latin portabilis, built from portare ("to carry") plus the suffix "-able".
Is “portable” a common word?
“Portable” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the C1 level.
What is the difference between portable and mobile?
Portable describes something light and compact enough to be carried or moved easily, such as a portable heater. Mobile emphasizes the ability to move or be moved, often while in use, as with a mobile phone. Many objects are both portable and mobile.
What is the difference between portable and transferable?
In its second sense, portable means able to be moved between employers, plans, or systems, as with a portable pension. Transferable is a close synonym, but portable is the usual term for benefits such as pensions and health coverage.
What is a portable pension?
A portable pension is one you can keep and carry with you when you change jobs, rather than losing it or leaving it behind. This reflects the sense of portable meaning able to be transferred between employers or plans.
What is the opposite of portable?
The opposite of portable is fixed, immovable, or stationary, describing something too heavy or firmly attached to be carried. In the benefits sense, the opposite is non-transferable.
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