mechanical

[ muh-kan-i-kuhl ]

adjective

1. having to do with machinery:

   a mechanical failure.

2. being a machine; operated by machinery:

   a mechanical toy.

3. caused by or derived from machinery:

   mechanical propulsion.

4. using machine parts only.
5. brought about by friction, abrasion, etc.:

   a mechanical bond between stones; mechanical erosion.

6. pertaining to the design, use, understanding, etc., of tools and machinery:

   the mechanical trades; mechanical ability.

7. acting or performed without spontaneity, spirit, individuality, etc.:

   a mechanical performance.

8. habitual; routine; automatic:

   Practice that step until it becomes mechanical.

9. belonging or pertaining to the subject matter of mechanics. mechanics.
10. pertaining to, or controlled or effected by, physical forces.
11. (of a philosopher or philosophical theory) explaining phenomena as due to mechanical action or the material forces of the universe.
12. subordinating the spiritual to the material; materialistic.

noun

1. a mechanical object, part, device, etc.
2. Printing. a sheet of stiff paper on which has been pasted artwork and type proofs for making a printing plate; paste-up.
3. Obsolete. a skilled manual laborer, as a carpenter or other artisan.

mechanical

/ mɪˈkænɪkəl /

adjective

1. made, performed, or operated by or as if by a machine or machinery

   a mechanical process

2. concerned with machines or machinery
3. relating to or controlled or operated by physical forces
4. of or concerned with mechanics
5. (of a gesture, etc) automatic; lacking thought, feeling, etc
6. philosophy accounting for phenomena by physically determining forces
7. (of paper, such as newsprint) made from pulp that has been mechanically ground and contains impurities

noun

1. See camera-ready copy
   printing another name for camera-ready copy
2. See mechanic
   archaic.
   another word for mechanic

Derived Forms

• meˈchanicalness, noun
• meˈchanicalism, noun
• meˈchanically, adverb

Other Words From

• 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of mechanical¹

1375–1425; late Middle English, equivalent to mechanic mechanical + -al ¹; mechanic

Example Sentences

The most widely used air purifier technology is what’s known as mechanical filtration.

From Fortune

You’ll also recall when the Tip-Top Canning Company got their first mechanical tomato harvester.

From Freakonomics

The contortions are essential for stable gliding, mechanical engineer Isaac Yeaton and colleagues report June 29 in Nature Physics.

From Science News

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.

From Singularity Hub 

Almost 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.

From Science News

There were also crashes not due to either mechanical or human error but to a lack of warning of dangerous conditions.

From The Daily Beast

He once told me that he only vaguely understood “the mechanical aspects of sex” until he was in his early twenties.

From The Daily Beast

The sounds are less mechanical and more lush, more concert hall than dance floor.

From The Daily Beast

Crowd labor platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk operate with few rules and little protection for workers.

From The Daily Beast

He's so white he's almost mock-white, and so are his jerky, long-necked, mechanical-man movements.

From The Daily Beast

In the preceding chapter an examination has been made of the purely mechanical side of the era of machine production.

From Project Gutenberg

The approach of these mechanical monsters opens up vistas thronged with shadowy forebodings.

From Project Gutenberg

Go carefully over the film with an oil-immersion lens, using a mechanical stage if available.

From Project Gutenberg

The door to the back room opened, letting through a blend of talk and small mechanical noises.

From Project Gutenberg

In the days of mechanical action, couplers of any kind proved a source of trouble and added greatly to the weight of the touch.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• automated
• automatic