Functional applications (e.g., widgets) in the form of an icon are implemented to be merged or demerged, and a method for displaying, operating, and managing the widgets in a mobile terminal is provided. The concept of UI-wise merging and demerging is applied to simple widget functions to update the widget functions. Also, widgets can be effectively managed through various widget operations. The mobile terminal includes an input unit configured to detect a received input, a display unit configured to display a plurality of widgets and a controller configured to merge a plurality of widgets into an integrated widget based on the received input and to execute an integrated function related to a selected widget of the plurality of widgets merged into the integrated widget.