Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

locomotion

/ˌloʊ.kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.88 in modern English

Syllables: lo-co-mo-tion
IPA: /ˌloʊ.kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/

14

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

4

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The ability to move from place to place, or the act of doing so.

Uncountable

noun

Self-powered motion by which a whole organism changes its location through walking, running, jumping, crawling, swimming, brachiating or flying.

Uncountable

noun

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.

Countable

Example Sentences

"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."
"The assessment also looks at reflexes, stationary (body control), locomotion (movement), grasping and visual-motor integration (eyes and hands coordinated)."
"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."

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”).

Origin

Source language: French

Word Breakdown

Root: *m(y)ewh₁-, locomotion, locō, moveō

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˌloʊ.kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/
British English: /ləʊ.kəˈməʊ.ʃən/

Usage

Inflected Forms

locomotions (plural)

Derived Forms

biolocomotion hyperlocomotion hypolocomotion locomotive locomotor

Synonyms

travel motive power motivity

Rhymes With

ocean motion promotion emotion notion devotion lotion potion commotion demotion laotian kocian

Questions

How do you pronounce locomotion?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˌloʊ.kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/.
What does locomotion mean?: The ability to move from place to place, or the act of doing so.
Where does locomotion come from?: It is traced to French.

How to pronounce locomotion

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “locomotion”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˌloʊ.kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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