- plural of animatronic.
animatronics
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of animatronics
1975–80; blend of animate and electronics
Explanation
The art of making mechanical creatures that look like animals is called animatronics. If you create a robotic cat, you've mastered the technique of animatronics. Before computer animation became versatile and sophisticated, many movies used animatronics to create the illusion that people were interacting with dinosaurs or imaginary creatures. Animals created using animatronics are robotic, but they appear fairly realistic. Walt Disney was the first film director to use animatronics, in the 1960s,though he originally called the technique Audio-Animatronics.
Vocabulary lists containing animatronics
Speak Your Mind: Anim
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anim (spirit; mind)
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for December 9–December 15, 2023
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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.
For Woliner and Notarnicola, “The Man in the Tuskhut” is only the beginning of their venture with animatronics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2025
An outside expert in animatronics, who typically works in television and theater, gives them an annual tuneup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
Using animatronics and other tools, many of these practical critters moved and appeared to even breathe, causing more than a few of us to scream in surprise.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2025
The original show gave the prehistoric reptiles the nature documentary treatment, offering glimpses of a world that was ruled by dinosaurs millions of years ago through the magic of CGI and animatronics.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025
With all the Hall’s animatronics mothballed for the duration, Lil had more time on her hands than she knew what to do with.
From Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
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.
