automaton
Americannoun
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automatons,
plural
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automata
plural
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a mechanical figure or contrivance constructed to act as if by its own motive power; robot.
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a person or animal that acts in a monotonous, routine manner, without active intelligence.
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something capable of acting automatically or without an external motive force.
noun
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a mechanical device operating under its own hidden power; robot
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a person who acts mechanically or leads a routine monotonous life
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of automaton
1605–15; < Latin: automatic device < Greek, noun use of neuter of autómatos spontaneous, acting without human agency, equivalent to auto- auto- 1 + -matos, adj. derivative from base of memonénai to intend, ménos might, force
Explanation
If you walk like an automaton, you move stiffly, like a robot. An automaton is something constructed to be human-like, or a person who seems to have lost the spark of life. When you see the word, think of Frankenstein's monster, or C3PO from Star Wars. They're not quite human, but they were made to appear so. Used metaphorically, this word suggests the loss of joy and sense of life that makes someone seem like a robot or zombie. After a bad loss, the baseball team might be sitting around like a bunch of automatons. They're mopey and lifeless.
Vocabulary lists containing automaton
Do it Yourself: Words Beginning with "AUTO"
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Mechanical Engineering
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The Hot Zone
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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:
“That’s just my face,” Zuckerberg tweeted Tuesday, his first comment on the viral mania, which has been rivaled this week only by Kelly Clarkson’s bizarre feud with a Brooklyn toy store over an automaton bird.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
According to Art of Play, it had explained to Clarkson that Molly was not for sale but “a nearly identical automaton is owned by the creator of the machines.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
At January’s conference, robots, including Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, a 6-foot-2-inch automaton weighing in at just under 200 pounds with a digital smiley face, were the stars.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
The application was consuming me, organizing my synapses like an automaton farmer who makes Munsen predictions regarding the historical flow of neurotransmission.
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2023
Meanwhile, Hugo’s father grew obsessed with getting the automaton to work.
From "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick
The sign jokes that the sculpture is the "world's most famous singing bird automata!"
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Campione has become known for her unique specialism in dolls, doll houses, automata, birdcages and corkscrews.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2024
There, in the Morris Museum’s collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata, is a music box from around 1877.
From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
Perhaps the message was hinting at the aliens’ appearance, morse code, cellular automata or the genetic secrets of E.T.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 3, 2023
Even animals, in Descartes’ view, were just automata.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The automatons he has created seem to lack the necessary ability to distinguish between friend and foe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Wilson clearly desires children to be quiet little automatons, instead of living, complex human beings.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2026
Even with peak robot decades away, automatons will be an increasingly important part of a stock portfolio.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
But by the time Descartes catalyzed the Enlightenment in the 17th century, he had reduced other animals to mere automatons, tainting centuries of science with the assumption that anything unlike us is inherently inferior.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2024
They were clearly the source of the flames, but they didn’t seem to be automatons.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
