autonomous

American  

[aw-ton-uh-muhs] / ɔˈtɒn ə məs /

adjective

1. Government.

   1. self-governing; independent; subject to its own laws only.

   2. pertaining to an autonomy, or a self-governing community.

2. having autonomy; not subject to control from outside; independent.

   a subsidiary that functioned as an autonomous unit.

3. (of a machine, device, etc.) able to operate with little or no human control or intervention.

   an autonomous vehicle.

4. Biology.

   1. existing and functioning as an independent organism.

   2. growing naturally or spontaneously, without cultivation.

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autonomous British  

/ ɔːˈtɒnəməs /

adjective

1. (of a community, country, etc) possessing a large degree of self-government

2. of or relating to an autonomous community

3. independent of others

4. philosophy

   1. acting or able to act in accordance with rules and principles of one's own choosing

   2. (in the moral philosophy of Kant, of an individual's will) directed to duty rather than to some other end Compare heteronomous See also categorical imperative

5. biology existing as an organism independent of other organisms or parts

6. a variant spelling of autonomic

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Other Word Forms

• nonautonomousness
  noun
• nonautonomous
  adjective
• autonomously
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of autonomous

First recorded in 1790–1800; from Greek autónomos “with laws of one's own, independent,” equivalent to auto- auto- ¹ + nóm(os) “law, custom” + -os adjective suffix

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Explanation

Autonomous describes things that function separately or independently. Once you move out of your parents' house and get your own job, you will be an autonomous member of the family. This adjective autonomous is often used of countries, regions, or groups that have the right to govern themselves: Vatican City, where the Catholic pope lives, is an autonomous territory located within the city limits of Rome. The corresponding noun is autonomy, referring to the state of existing or functioning independently. Autonomous comes from the Greek roots autos, "self," and nomos, "law."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

autonomous

A few high-profile incidents where autonomous AI agents broke out of their sandboxes and infiltrated third-party systems have helped to underscore its importance.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 24, 2026

For Musk, the merger supports his vision of a world full of autonomous cars, humanoid robots and weekly rocket launches, as well as the data centers and satellites required to keep the whole thing running.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

For much of this year, Tesla has also encountered scrutiny over swelling capital spending to fund ambitious programs in artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous driving.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

By comparison, the earliest versions of autonomous navigation used by Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, were responsible for assessing only about 5% of their driving distances.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

King Zwel- ithini, supported by Chief Buthelezi, called for an autonomous and sovereign KwaZulu, and discouraged everyone in his province from voting.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

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Related Words

• self-governing
• sovereign

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