mechanical
having to do with machinery: a mechanical failure.
being a machine; operated by machinery: a mechanical toy.
caused by or derived from machinery: mechanical propulsion.
using machine parts only.
brought about by friction, abrasion, etc.: a mechanical bond between stones; mechanical erosion.
pertaining to the design, use, understanding, etc., of tools and machinery: the mechanical trades; mechanical ability.
acting or performed without spontaneity, spirit, individuality, etc.: a mechanical performance.
habitual; routine; automatic: Practice that step until it becomes mechanical.
belonging or pertaining to the subject matter of mechanics.
pertaining to, or controlled or effected by, physical forces.
(of a philosopher or philosophical theory) explaining phenomena as due to mechanical action or the material forces of the universe.
subordinating the spiritual to the material; materialistic.
a mechanical object, part, device, etc.
Printing. a sheet of stiff paper on which has been pasted artwork and type proofs for making a printing plate; paste-up.
Obsolete. a skilled manual laborer, as a carpenter or other artisan.
Origin of mechanical
1Other words from mechanical
- me·chan·i·cal·ly, adverb
- me·chan·i·cal·ness, me·chan·i·cal·i·ty, noun
- non·me·chan·i·cal, adjective
- non·me·chan·i·cal·ly, adverb
- non·me·chan·i·cal·ness, noun
- qua·si-me·chan·i·cal, adjective
- qua·si-me·chan·i·cal·ly, adverb
- sem·i·me·chan·i·cal, adjective
- su·per·me·chan·i·cal, adjective
- su·per·me·chan·i·cal·ly, adverb
- un·me·chan·i·cal, adjective
- un·me·chan·i·cal·ly, adverb
Words Nearby mechanical
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use mechanical in a sentence
The most widely used air purifier technology is what’s known as mechanical filtration.
You’ll also recall when the Tip-Top Canning Company got their first mechanical tomato harvester.
How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War (Ep. 386 Rebroadcast) | Stephen J. Dubner | August 6, 2020 | FreakonomicsThe contortions are essential for stable gliding, mechanical engineer Isaac Yeaton and colleagues report June 29 in Nature Physics.
While bits in a conventional computer can only adopt the values of 1 or 0, the qubits at the heart of a quantum computer can adopt multiple combinations of 1 or 0 at the same time thanks to the quantum mechanical phenomena of superposition.
A New Startup Intends to Build the World’s First Large-Scale Quantum Computer | Edd Gent | June 22, 2020 | Singularity HubAlmost as soon as she had arrived at the hospital she needed help breathing with a mechanical ventilator, a sign of “how sick her lungs already were,” said Elizabeth Malsin, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
A critically ill COVID-19 patient just got a double lung transplant | Aimee Cunningham | June 11, 2020 | Science News
There were also crashes not due to either mechanical or human error but to a lack of warning of dangerous conditions.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly? | Clive Irving | January 4, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTHe once told me that he only vaguely understood “the mechanical aspects of sex” until he was in his early twenties.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe sounds are less mechanical and more lush, more concert hall than dance floor.
Crowd labor platforms like Amazon mechanical Turk operate with few rules and little protection for workers.
Amazon’s Turkers Kick Off the First Crowdsourced Labor Guild | Kevin Zawacki | December 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe's so white he's almost mock-white, and so are his jerky, long-necked, mechanical-man movements.
The Stacks: Pauline Kael's Talking Heads Obsession | Pauline Kael | November 22, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the preceding chapter an examination has been made of the purely mechanical side of the era of machine production.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice | Stephen LeacockThe approach of these mechanical monsters opens up vistas thronged with shadowy forebodings.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I | Ian HamiltonGo carefully over the film with an oil-immersion lens, using a mechanical stage if available.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddThe door to the back room opened, letting through a blend of talk and small mechanical noises.
Fee of the Frontier | Horace Brown FyfeIn the days of mechanical action, couplers of any kind proved a source of trouble and added greatly to the weight of the touch.
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building | George Laing Miller
British Dictionary definitions for mechanical
/ (mɪˈkænɪkəl) /
made, performed, or operated by or as if by a machine or machinery: a mechanical process
concerned with machines or machinery
relating to or controlled or operated by physical forces
of or concerned with mechanics
(of a gesture, etc) automatic; lacking thought, feeling, etc
philosophy accounting for phenomena by physically determining forces
(of paper, such as newsprint) made from pulp that has been mechanically ground and contains impurities
printing another name for camera-ready copy
archaic another word for mechanic (def. 2)
Derived forms of mechanical
- mechanicalism, noun
- mechanically, adverb
- mechanicalness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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