android
noun
an automaton in the form of a human being.
android
American
[an-droid]
/ ˈæn drɔɪd /
noun
-
androids
plural
Android
1
British
/ ˈændrɔɪd /
noun
-
a software package for smartphones, including many application programs
-
a smartphone that uses this software
android
2
British
/ ˈændrɔɪd /
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of android
From the New Latin word androīdēs, dating back to 1720–30. See andr-, -oid
Compare meaning
How does android compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
An android is a robot that looks and acts like a human being. Sometimes they have fake skin that looks so real you can’t tell the difference. For all you know, the person sitting next to you is an android. Life’s biggest question: What’s the difference between cyborgs and androids? Cyborgs are humans with robot parts added to them, and androids start as robots and then get designed to look like humans. The Latin root androides literally means “resembling a man,” and androids really know how to blend in. Androids mostly appear in science fiction novels and films, but who knows, maybe you’re friends with an android and you don’t even know it. Yet.
Vocabulary lists containing android
Science Fiction Lingo
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A Very Large Expanse of Sea
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Another element of the plot, which grows in prominence as the film proceeds, concerns the banding together of the handful of android children in the neighborhood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Sony is halting sales of its robotic puppy "aibo" in Japan, the company said, eight years after the latest model of its interactive android pet became an instant hit.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
The android knows how to navigate the planet’s threats—exploding spike plants, acid-spitting eels, literal razor grass—so Dek reluctantly teams up with her to find his quarry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
He doesn’t look hand-stitched — he looks a little like a modern android.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
Apprehensively, she said, “There’s a fine; I’m the property, the legal property, of the association. I’m not an escaped android who fled here from Mars; I’m not in the same class as the others.”
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Released in February, the app has roughly 110,000 downloads on Android, with most of the users in the United States and Canada, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
“They have the Android and the iPhone, and that’s kind of how you’re going to use AI for now,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
The commission, the 27-nation bloc's antitrust regulator, had accused Google of abusing the popularity of its Android operating system to restrict competition.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
It has been downloaded more than a billion times across iOS and Android devices, with millions still logging on each day.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
“The Android Look was not a good one for me.”
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
The iPhone might be with us until the end of time, or until we ourselves become androids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
The story follows a robot detective who is investigating a string of robot and human killings, and, like many sci-fi stories about androids and artificial intelligence, touches on themes like what makes humans human.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2025
You just think he’s British, so there’s that element to it where there’s something erudite or aloof about many of the androids.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2025
The filmmaker, whose film stars Will Smith as a detective sceptical of seemingly obedient androids, accused Musk of copying his work in a post on X.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2024
Other humans, having no knowledge of the presence of androids among them, had to be protected at all costs—even that of losing the quarry.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
