heteronomous

American  

[het-uh-ron-uh-muhs] / ˌhɛt əˈrɒn ə məs /

adjective

1. subject to or involving different laws.

2. pertaining to or characterized by heteronomy.

3. Biology. subject to different laws of growth or specialization.

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heteronomous British  

/ ˌhɛtəˈrɒnɪməs /

adjective

1. subject to an external law, rule, or authority Compare autonomous

2. (of the parts of an organism) differing in the manner of growth, development, or specialization

3. (in Kant's philosophy) directed to an end other than duty for its own sake Compare autonomous

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Other Word Forms

• heteronomously adverb
• heteronomy noun

Etymology

Origin of heteronomous

First recorded in 1815–25; heteronom(y) + -ous

Example Sentences

Or he may try to bury his anxieties in a "heteronomous" religion that offers him readymade certitudes for his uncertainties.

From Time Magazine Archive

Becoming, then, can be taken in two ways, which for brevity’s sake we shall call the autonomous and the heteronomous.

From The Reform of Education by Gentile, Giovanni

An heteronomous becoming is to be traced back to the becoming of the cause which produces it.

From The Reform of Education by Gentile, Giovanni

The wisest requirements seem to the child more or less alien, arbitrary, heteronomous, artificial, falsetto.

From Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene by Hall, G. Stanley

Whether we call it nature or name it God, this law transcends the becoming of the plant, its heteronomous becoming as we called it, and is properly the becoming of something else.

From The Reform of Education by Gentile, Giovanni