Dictionary

locomotion en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ləʉ.kəˈməʉ.ʃən/ (Australia)
• /ˌloʊ.kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/ (Canada, US)
• /ləʊ.kəˈməʊ.ʃən/ (UK)

Etymology

From French locomotion, from Latin locō (literally “from a place”) (ablative of locus (“place”)) + mōtiōnem (“motion, a moving”) (nominative mōtio), from Latin movēre (“move; change, exchange, go in or out, quit”), from Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- (“to move, drive”).

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The ability to move from place to place, or the act of doing so.
2. (uncountable, usually) Self-powered motion by which a whole organism changes its location through walking, running, jumping, crawling, swimming, brachiating or flying.
   • The assessment also looks at reflexes, stationary (body control), locomotion (movement), grasping and visual-motor integration (eyes and hands coordinated). 2017 June 9, Susan Scutti, “Study links mosquito spray to delayed motor skills in babies”, in CNN, archived from the original on 06 Oct 2022:
   • So it is that one of the characteristics that the sperm whale shares with all cetaceans is that it swims by flexing its tail flukes dorso-ventrally, a less efficient way of swimming than that of its distant piscine ancestors, but a mode of locomotion that derives directly from the galloping of its more recent terrestrial ones. 2011 September 22, Richard Shelton, “Sheep, pig, whale”, in Times Literary Supplement:
3. (countable, qualifier:often preceded by definite article, usually) A dance, originally popular in the 1960s, in which the arms are used to mimic the motion of the connecting rods of a steam locomotive.
   • Mr. Motian's own tunes, folk-simple locomotions of straight melody, fast or slow, with acres of room for interpretation, have accounted for some of the mistier sets. 2005 February 7, Ben Ratliff, “New CD's”, in The New York Times:

Forms

Deriveds

biolocomotion · locomotor · hyperlocomotion · hypolocomotion · locomotive

Translations (22)

fr locomotion (ability to move) · es locomoción (ability to move) · gl locomoción (ability to move) · pl lokomocja (ability to move) · ca locomoció (ability to move) · bg придвижване (ability to move) · nl voortbeweging (ability to move) · pl poruszanie się (ability to move) · de Lokomotion (ability to move) · ro locomoție (ability to move) · ga féinghluaiseacht (ability to move) · ru ход (ability to move) · el μετακίνηση (ability to move) · io lokomoco (ability to move) · it locomozione (ability to move) · sh локомоција (ability to move) · sh lokomocija (ability to move) · de Fortbewegungsfähigkeit (ability to move) · de Fortbewegung (ability to move) · ka გადაადგილება (ability to move) · fi liikkumiskyky (ability to move) · pt locomoção (ability to move)