automaton
4
7.9
- noun
- /ˌɔːtəˈmætən/
- Specialized
:
autómata
- The automaton performed perfectly, mimicking the actions of a human dancer.
- hybrid automaton
Although for pictorially, I think everybody like this way of sketching out what your automaton would accept.
- Although for pictorially, I think everybody like this way of sketching out what your automaton would accept.
Examples
-
Like the human model on which it was based, the automaton was essentially individualistic.
Academic text (2003) -
"Tom crept out from beneath the desk and carefully picked up the broken automaton.
Fiction book (2001) -
Their arms move like pistons; they show glassy automaton eyes.
Fiction book (1994) -
Animated automatons in many colors appear and disappear on the screen.
Fiction book (1990) -
Amidst the shuttered booths, a glass case shelters a mechanical automaton "fat lady" who rocks back and forth with hands on knees.
Fiction book (1994) -
OUR VERY OWN MR. JOEL ROBINSON, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, AND HIS AUTOMATON SIDEKICK, CROW.
-
Children were fascinated by how the automaton could write their names on a piece of paper.
-
At the exhibition, the automaton poured drinks into glasses without any human help.
Synonyms
454
2.6
A machine that people can program to do jobs automatically
57
6.8
A machine that looks and acts like a human
21
7.2
A machine that looks and moves like a person
2
9.9
A machine like a robot that moves by itself and is made or controlled by magic
1
7.5
A machine made to look and act like a person
A machine or robot that works by itself to do tasks, often in future stories
How Automatic
Surface Forms
Etymology
Automaton comes from the Greek parts auto- 'self' and -maton 'moving', like in automatic. So an automaton is a device that 'moves by itself', which is why the word means a machine that works on its own and can copy human or animal actions.