motilityn.
/məʊˈtɪlᵻti/, U.S. /moʊˈtɪlᵻdi/ Biology and Medicine.
The power of active movement, esp. of a body part, cell, or organelle; the degree or type of such movement. Also more widely: movement, motion (rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > [noun] > ability to move or be moved
movablenessa1398
mobility?a1425
motility1822
movability1824
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. I. 431 The shrillness or roughness of the voice depends on the internal diameter of the glottis, its elasticity, motility [1829 mobility], and lubricity.
1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. II. 675/1 Cold..tends to diminish sensibility and motility.
1860 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 1000/2 The changes and motility of their cilia.
1878 A. M. Hamilton Nerv. Dis. 90 A very small lesion may produce very decided impairment of motility.
1929 Bibliographia Genetica 5 234 In Bacillus coli communis..a biotype was also found having lower motility than the remainder of the clone from which it came.
1954 Chem. Abstr. 48 8945 Ritalin..has a psychomotor excitatory effect, producing psychic stimulation and a coördinated increase in motility in exptl. animals.
1960 B. Bettelheim Informed Heart (1986) i. 28 Swaddling, on the cradle board, interferes with the infant's free motility.
1976 Radiol. Clin. N. Amer. 14 432/2 The reflex arcs controlling normal esophogeal motility are interrupted by disease of the medullary nuclei.
1986 M. Kogut tr. H. G. Schlegel Gen. Microbiol. ii. 58 Bacteria can achieve motility in a number of ways.
2001 Digestive Dis. & Sci. 46 2374 Altered gallbladder motility by progesterone has been recognized as an important factor in the development of gallstones.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1822