automaton
10
8.4
- noun
- /ˌɔːtəˈmætən/
- Offensive
:
autómata
- Most of these eye doctors are like automatons.
- humans are automatons
You'll just become an automaton following what it feeds you.
- You'll just become an automaton following what it feeds you.
- But they know enough about me to know I'm not an automaton or anything.
- They want people who are training automatons.
- We are not mere automatons, although we can often reason in ways that that seem kind of like that.
Examples
-
Truman stood abruptly and crossed the room with the jerky movements of an automaton.
Fiction book (1995) -
We are not mere automatons, although we can often reason in ways that that seem kind of like that.
-
Like an automaton, she followed his lead until he knew he had her.
Fiction book (2002) -
But I will not become an automaton.
-
But they know enough about me to know I'm not an automaton or anything.
-
Her voice was without inflection, like an automaton's, her face a frozen mask.
Fiction book (2001) -
On the outside they're lost, automatons, just going through the motions of living.
-
According to Gurdjieff, most humans are automatons, but the spiritual psychologies recognize that "real consciousness is possible" (79).
Academic text (1995) -
Her voice was without inflection, like an automaton, her face a frozen mask.
-
On the outside they're lost, automatons, just going through the motions of living.
Synonyms
140
4.9
A person who moves and acts without energy or interest
A person who moves and acts without interest or thought
A machine or robot that works by itself to do tasks, often in future stories
How Mechanical
Surface Forms
Etymology
Automaton comes from the Greek parts auto- 'self' and -maton 'moving', like in automatic. So a person called an automaton seems to act 'by itself', moving and answering without thought or feeling.