Abstract: Although many models are proposed in landslide prediction in recently years, such as grey system, artificial neural net and time series analysis, the inverse-velocity method is still widely used and characterized by availability and simpleness. According to the movement histories of many landslides that occurred in a variety of materials in a range of settings, four movement patterns are observed evidently during acceleration phase：linear, fluctuant, asymptotic and instantaneous form. Deformation mechanism and movement characteristic of four movement patterns are also presented. The prediction results by the inverse-velocity method are illustrated by typical examples original from the published literature：(1)The inverse-velocity method is suitable for the linear form or fluctuant form that is associated with crack growth, and it can be used by plotting the inverse-velocity curve to predict failure time.(2)Due to ductile deformation in asymptotic form or sudden acceleration in instantaneous form, the method can not directly predict failure time in the two forms. However, the overall trend of landslide deformation is easier to interpret on the inverse-velocity plot.