autonomous

American  

[aw-ton-uh-muhs] / ɔˈtɒn ə məs /

adjective

1. Government.

   1. self-governing; independent; subject to its own laws only.

   2. pertaining to an autonomy, or a self-governing community.

2. having autonomy; not subject to control from outside; independent.

   a subsidiary that functioned as an autonomous unit.

3. (of a machine, device, etc.) able to operate with little or no human control or intervention.

   an autonomous vehicle.

4. Biology.

   1. existing and functioning as an independent organism.

   2. growing naturally or spontaneously, without cultivation.

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autonomous British  

/ ɔːˈtɒnəməs /

adjective

1. (of a community, country, etc) possessing a large degree of self-government

2. of or relating to an autonomous community

3. independent of others

4. philosophy

   1. acting or able to act in accordance with rules and principles of one's own choosing

   2. (in the moral philosophy of Kant, of an individual's will) directed to duty rather than to some other end Compare heteronomous See also categorical imperative

5. biology existing as an organism independent of other organisms or parts

6. a variant spelling of autonomic

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Other Word Forms

• autonomously adverb
• nonautonomous adjective
• nonautonomousness noun

Etymology

Origin of autonomous

First recorded in 1790–1800; from Greek autónomos “with laws of one's own, independent,” equivalent to auto- auto- ¹ + nóm(os) “law, custom” + -os adjective suffix

Example Sentences

The Yellow Vests were an autonomous uprising, not supported by any unions or political parties.

From Salon

Mr. Amodei has said Anthropic doesn’t want its models deployed for so-called domestic “mass surveillance” and in fully autonomous weapons systems.

From The Wall Street Journal

The firm has a Buy rating on Ondas stock with the view that the autonomous drone company is well-positioned to capitalize on rising defense budgets and demand for autonomous defense technologies.

From Barron's

Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei were concerned that would open the door to its tools being used for mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons.

From BBC

Anthropic sought assurances that its models wouldn’t be used in fully autonomous weapons or for domestic surveillance.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• self-governing
• sovereign