robotic
Americanadjective
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in the manner of a robot; mechanical; lacking human intelligence or emotion.
He’s so constant and efficient that he looks robotic on the ice, and his scores for artistic performance suffer.
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performed by a robot without active guidance from a human operator.
Over the course of several robotic missions, NASA gathered information about the surface of Mars and its atmosphere.
Etymology
Origin of robotic
First recorded in 1925–30; robot ( def. ) + -ic ( def. )
Explanation
Something is robotic if it moves or behaves like a machine. If you express no emotion and do things in an automatic-seeming way, your friends might say you're robotic. The adjective robotic can describe something related to the use of robots, like a robotic technique for dismantling a bomb or a robotic tool for surgery. Often, it's used to describe a person who reminds you of a robot: "She gets good grades, but she's so robotic! All she does is work — never has any fun!" Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov is credited with the first use of robotic in 1941.
Vocabulary lists containing robotic
Vocabulary from "There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy," by Sherry Turkle
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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.
What is clear though is that robotic weapon systems are big business.
From BBC • May 6, 2026
Researchers led by the University of Cambridge, working with colleagues from the University of California, analyzed long-term measurements collected by research ships and robotic ocean instruments.
From Science Daily • Apr. 30, 2026
In a sprawling office in Hefei, the eastern Chinese electric vehicle hub, hundreds of employees and several robotic arms sat refining software developed jointly by German behemoth Volkswagen and Chinese EV maker XPeng.
From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026
An emerging option developed at West Virginia University is a robotic aortic valve replacement.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 25, 2026
Mr. Shareef led Nadine and Patch out to the truck, where the children were chatting with their robotic friend.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
Definitions 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.
