Mobilized

How to spell mobilized

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mobilized

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mobilized mean?

1. verbOrganized or prepared people, resources, or support so that they were ready for a particular purpose.
2. verbAssembled and made ready armed forces for active service.

Mobilized in a sentence

• The charity mobilized hundreds of volunteers within a single weekend.

• The government mobilized its reserve troops as tensions rose along the border.

• Local businesses mobilized funds to rebuild the flooded library.

• The nation mobilized its entire army within forty-eight hours.

Where does mobilized come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin adjective mobilis, meaning 'movable' or 'easily moved', which itself was built on the verb movere, 'to move'. French took mobile and in the late 1700s coined the verb mobiliser, used at first in a military sense for calling up troops and putting an army into a state of readiness. English borrowed the verb as 'mobilize' in the 1830s, keeping the original military meaning before broadening it to cover any rallying of people or resources for a common purpose. The same mobilis root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'mobile', 'automobile', and even 'mob', so the silent idea of movement runs through the whole family. The spelling trap here is the unstressed middle vowel and the -ize ending, which an educated writer can easily soften to a schwa and second-guess.

How the word is built

• mobil- (movable, from Latin mobilis)
• -ize (to make/cause)
• -ed (past tense)

British and American spelling

Mobilized is the American spelling. British English spells it mobilised.