automobile
Americannoun
-
automobiles
plural
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of automobile
1865–70; < French: literally, self-movable (vehicle). See auto- 1, mobile
Explanation
An automobile is a car: a vehicle with four wheels and an internal combustion engine. The automobile is one of the most common ways to travel. Thanks in part to Henry Ford, automobiles are just about everywhere: in cities, small towns, and even in rural areas, where it's too far to walk from place to place and there's very little public transportation. Trucks, vans, buses, and limousines are bigger than the typical automobile, but they’re automobiles, too. A motorcycle isn't an automobile because it only has two wheels. Automobiles are good for getting around, but they also cause pollution and automobile accidents.
Vocabulary lists containing automobile
To Thine Own Self Be True: Auto
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Frankenwords: Words with Roots from Different Languages
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: auto-
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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:
Meanwhile, analog-chip names, which mostly serve the automobile and industrial markets, have outperformed the broader sector “as overall AI sentiment has soured,” Rasgon said.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
She then told a story about driving a carload of children to school one day in an automobile limping along because a tire had been slashed by union opponents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
"We've got to end the Canadian tariff war. It is certainly not helpful to us. It is not helpful to our automobile industry," Rogers said recently.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
"I've called for that too. I've said let's not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel. That could have a little bit of an effect on regular automobile gasoline," he said .
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
The wagon and the automobile were out in the street.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
In automobiles, domestic sales have declined 20% this year while exports are up more than 60%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
Foreman and his wife, Mary Joan Martelly, designed the Huffman residence to accommodate their growing family and his expanding collection of automobiles.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026
On 8,000 acres in Michigan, Ford’s researchers planted 300 soybean varieties and searched for ways to incorporate the harvest into automobiles.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
While car imagery doesn’t predominate on @map_pointz, the scenes that Rosales was involved in couldn’t have happened without automobiles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Humans were strolling, automobiles were driving, airships were flying, robots were hard at work.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
