Word.ws English Dictionary

move

/muːv/

move verb: to change place or posture; to go, in any manner, from one place or position to another.

Verb

move (third-person singular simple present moves, present participle moving, simple past and past participle moved)

  1. (intransitive) To change place or posture; to go, in any manner, from one place or position to another.
    • A ship moves rapidly.
    • I was sitting on the sofa for a long time, feeling too lazy to move.
  2. (intransitive) To act; to take action; to begin to act
    • to move in a matter
    • Come on guys, let's move: there's work to do!
  3. (intransitive) To change residence, for example from one house, town, or state, to another; to go and live at another place; similarly to change the location of another establishment such as a business. See also move out and move in.
    • I decided to move to the country for a more peaceful life.
    • They moved closer to work to cut down commuting time.
  4. (transitive) To transport (an item) as part of changing residences.
    • Before my lease ended, I gave away my old sofa because I didn't want to move it.
  5. (ergative, transitive) To cause to change place or posture in any manner; to set in motion; to carry, convey, draw, or push from one place to another
    • The waves moved the boat up and down.
    • The horse moves a carriage.
    Synonyms:
    drive, impel, propel, stir
  6. (transitive, board games) To transfer (a piece) from one space or position on the board to another.
    • She moved the queen closer to the centre of the board.
    • He rolled a 5 and moved his counter to Boardwalk, the most expensive property on the Monopoly board.
  7. (transitive) To excite to action by the presentation of motives; to rouse by representation, persuasion, or appeal; to influence.
    • This song moves me to dance.
    • Seducer of the People, not moved with the Piety of his Life1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC
  8. (transitive) To arouse the feelings or passions of; especially, to excite to tenderness or compassion, to excite (for example, an emotion).
    • That book really moved me.
    • When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 9:36
    Synonyms:
    affect, excite, touch, trouble
  9. (intransitive, transitive) To propose; to recommend; specifically, to propose formally for consideration and determination, in a deliberative assembly; to submit
    • I move to repeal the rule regarding obligatory school uniform.
    • Two days were thus wasted in the quarrel between the consuls. It was clear that while Faminius was present no decision could be arrived at. Owing to Flaminius' absence through illness, Aemilius seized the opportunity to move a resolution which the senate adopted. Its purport was that the Ambracians...1905, Livy, translated by Canon Roberts, From the Founding of the City, Book 38
  10. (obsolete, transitive) To mention; to raise (a question); to suggest (a course of action); to lodge (a complaint).
  11. (obsolete, transitive) To incite, urge (someone to do something); to solicit (someone for or of an issue); to make a proposal to.
    • "Sir," seyde Sir Boys, "ye nede nat to meve me of such maters, for well ye wote I woll do what I may to please you."1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VII
    • The thirſt of raigne and ſweetnes of a crowne, […]
      Moou’d me to menage armes againſt thy ſtate.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  12. (obsolete, transitive) To apply to, as for aid.
    • To me she speaks; she moves me for her themc. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (intransitive, transitive) To request an action from the court.
    • An attorney moved the court to issue a restraining order.
    • The district attorney moved for a non-suit.
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To bow or salute upon meeting.
  3. (transitive) To sell or market (especially physical inventory or illicit drugs).
    • This business will fail if it can't move the inventory quickly.
  4. (transitive) To transfer the value of one object in memory to another efficiently (i.e., without copying it in entirety).
    • We didn’t really want a copy; we just wanted to get the result out of a function: we wanted to move a Vector rather than to copy it.2013, Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language, 4th edition, Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, 3.3.2, page 75
    • In Rust, for most types, operations like assigning a value to a variable, passing it to a function, or returning it from a function don’t copy the value: they move it.2018, Jim Blandy, Jason Orendorff, chapter 4, in Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development, O’Reilly, →ISBN, page 77

Noun

move (plural moves)

  1. The act of moving; a movement.
    • A slight move of the tiller, and the boat will go off course.
    • The drummer Cynthia praised her best friends' dance moves to the music.
  2. An act for the attainment of an object; a step in the execution of a plan or purpose.
    • He made another move towards becoming a naturalized citizen.
  3. A formalized or practiced action used in athletics, dance, physical exercise, self-defense, hand-to-hand combat, etc.
    • She always gets spontaneous applause for that one move.
    • He can win a match with that one move.
  4. The event of changing one's residence.
    • The move into my fiancé's house took two long days.
    • They were pleased about their move to the country.
    Synonyms:
    removal, relocation
  5. A change in strategy.
    • I am worried about our boss's move.
    • It was a smart move to bring on a tall striker to play against the smaller defenders.
  6. A transfer, a change from one employer to another.
    • Robin van Persie squandered United's best chance late on but otherwise it was a relatively comfortable afternoon for Liverpool's new goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who has yet to concede a Premier League goal since his £9m summer move from Sunderland.2013 September 1, Phil McNulty, BBC Sport
  7. (board games) The act of moving a token on a gameboard from one position to another according to the rules of the game.
    • The best move of the game was when he sacrificed his rook in order to gain better possession.
    • It's your move! Roll the dice!
    Synonyms:
    play
  8. (plural-normally, board games) A round, in which each player has a turn.
    • You can win in three moves if you do that.
  9. Within the Minimalist Program, a fundamental operation of syntactic construction

move meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

move in Hindi

(intransitive) to change place or posture; to go
चलना calnā

move in Tamil

(transitive) to change the place of something
நகர் nakar
(intransitive) to change place or posture; to go
அசை acai, நகர் nakar
to act; to take action
கிளம்பு kiḷampu
to cause to change place or posture; to set in motion
இயக்கு iyakku

move in Marathi

(intransitive) to change place or posture; to go
चालने cālne

move in Urdu

(intransitive) to change place or posture; to go
چلنا calnā
More languagesFewer languages
move in Bengali
চলা cola
move in Telugu
నప్పు nappu, ఆడు āḍu, కదులు kadulu
move in Malayalam
ചലിക്കുക calikkuka
move in Kannada
ಹರಿ hari, ಅಸಿ asi
move in Punjabi
ਹਿਲਾਉਣਾ hilāuṇā, ਹਿੱਲਣਾ hillaṇā, ਵਗਣਾ vagṇā
move in Gujarati
ખસવું khasvũ
move in Odia
ଚାଲିବା cālibā, ଚାଳିବା cāḷibā, ବୁଲିବା bulibā
move in Sanskrit
चलति calati, वच्यते vacyáte, सेधति sedhati
move in Sinhala
අල්ලනවා allanawā
move in Assamese
চলা sola
move in Nepali
चल्नु calnu
move in Tagalog
gumalaw, umandar
move in Arabic
تَحَرَّكَ taḥarraka, حَرُكَ ḥaruka, اِنْتَقَلَ intaqala, تَحَلْحَلَ taḥalḥala
move in Malay
alih
move in Indonesian
pindah
move in Persian
حرکت کردن harekat kardan, جنبیدن jonbidan, کوچیدن kučidan, اسبابکشی asbâb-keši
move in Thai
เดิน dəən, เคลื่อน klʉ̂ʉan, เคลื่อนที่ klʉ̂ʉan-tîi, ขยับ kà-yàp
move in Vietnamese
chuyển động, chuyển
move in Myanmar
ကူးပြောင်း ku:praung:, လှုပ်ရှား hluphra:

Examples of move in a sentence

  • If you roll a six, you can make two moves.
  • God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.1780, William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkneſs”, in Twenty-ſix Letters on Religious Subjects […] To which are added Hymns […] , 4th...
  • Secondly, When a body is once in motion it will continue to move forever, unless something stops it.1839, Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy, page 95:
  • He then moved from Nanking to Wuhan and finally to Chungking, but when his health deteriorated, he went to Chiang-chin, a small village near Chungking, for recuperation.1986, Wen-shun Chi, “Ch’en Tu-hsiu (1879-1942)”, in Ideological Conflicts in Modern China: Democracy and Authoritarianism, published 1992...
  • Owing to Flaminius' absence through illness, Aemilius seized the opportunity to move a resolution which the senate adopted.1905, Livy, translated by Canon Roberts, From the Founding of the City, Book 38:

All 40 example sentences with move

Synonyms of move

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of move

Forms of move

Verb
third-person singular presentmoves
present participlemoving
past participlemoved
pastmoved
alternative formmeve
second-person singular present (archaic)movest
second-person singular past (archaic)movedst
third-person singular present (archaic)moveth
alternative form (obsolete)mieve
alternative form (obsolete)mooue
alternative form (obsolete)moove
Noun
pluralmoves

Past tense of move: moved

Plural of move: moves

Origin of move

From Middle English moven, moeven, meven, borrowed from Old Northern French mover, moveir and Old French mouver, moveir (“to move”) (compare modern French mouvoir from Old French movoir), from Latin movēre (“move; change, exchange, go in or out, quit”), from Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- (“to move, drive”). Cognate with Lithuanian mauti (“to push on, rush”), Sanskrit मीवति (mī́vati, “pushes, presses, moves”), Middle Dutch mouwe (“sleeve”). Largely displaced native English stir, from Middle English stiren, sturien, from Old English styrian. See also Old English hrēran.

Words formed from move

Phrases with move

50 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with move

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about move

What does move mean?
Move means to change place or posture; to go, in any manner, from one place or position to another.
What is move in Hindi?
Move in Hindi is चलना (calnā). See Move meaning in Hindi.
How do you use move in a sentence?
If you roll a six, you can make two moves.
What part of speech is move?
Move can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce move?
Move is pronounced /muːv/.
What is the past tense of move?
The past tense of move is moved.

Words near move in the dictionary

  1. moval
  2. movals
  3. movant
  4. movants
  5. Movchan
  6. move
  7. move a finger
  8. move about
  9. move ahead
  10. move along
  11. move an inch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: move (page history and authors); ಅಸಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਵਗਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ଚାଲିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); අල්ලනවා (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-move.ogg.

Cite this entry: “move.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/move. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.