self-regulating

[self-reg-yuh-ley-ting, self-]

adjective

1. adjusting, ruling, or governing itself without outside interference; operating or functioning without externally imposed controls or regulations.

   a self-regulating economy; the self-regulating market.

2. functioning automatically.

   a self-regulating machine.

self-regulating

adjective

1. (of a business, society, etc) enforcing or upholding its own rules and laws without external agency of intervention

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-regulating¹

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

In the 1970s, when people became concerned that gene-splicing techniques could lead to the production of super viruses, Baltimore organized a conference at Asilomar near Monterey to design a self-regulating system to monitor those experiments.

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In the three years since the Taliban takeover, it's become clear that even if edicts aren’t strictly imposed, people start self-regulating out of fear.

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Its new rule said bump stocks were illegal machine guns because they function as “a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that allows the firing of multiple rounds through a single function of the trigger.”

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"We recycle the fuel through our reactor multiple times, dealing with the waste, and the new reactors cannot melt-down, they are self-cooling and self-regulating."

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With 0.05%, “I think the studies show that people will be better at self-regulating, that they will say, ‘Oh, I need a designated driver,’” she said.

Read more on Seattle Times

Related Words

• automated www.thesaurus.com
• electric 
• electronic 
• mechanical