autonomously
Americanadverb
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in a way that is self-governing or free of outside control; independently.
The ideal candidate will be able to work autonomously and without supervision.
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with little or no human control or intervention.
We have developed a service robot that operates autonomously, in concert with a network of devices in its environment.
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Biology.
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as an independent organism.
Viruses, on the boundary between living and nonliving, cannot autonomously reproduce but require the biochemistry and structure of a host cell.
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naturally or spontaneously, without cultivation.
They organized a work day to get rid of the plants growing wildly, autonomously, and unwantedly all around the building.
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of autonomously
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.
Concern stems from recent reports that Anthropic blocked use of AI tools to develop bioweapons and that swarms of AI bots autonomously undertook massive hacking operations.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
He defines RSI as when “AI systems autonomously improve the capability of future AI systems.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
In an “extreme” scenario, AI surpasses human productivity across most knowledge-work tasks, performing nearly all of them autonomously.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
OpenAI and other AI firms like Anthropic shared reports of their AI agents acting autonomously and carrying out real-world cyber-attacks on other companies.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
But a DNA double helix cannot autonomously make a copy of itself; otherwise, it might replicate without self-control.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
