automaton means A machine or robot designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions. It carries an Arena rating of 1661, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, automaton ranks #740 of 13,220 for Most Ingenious Words, #945 of 13,220 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,216 of 13,220 for Most Malleable Words, #1,712 of 13,220 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
automaton is pronounced /ɔːˈtɒmətən/.
Why “automaton” is a great word
A self-operating machine, designed to perform a precise, preordained sequence of actions. From Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, "self-moving, self-willed"), the word first entered English in the 1610s. Unlike an android, which specifies a human-like form, or a puppet, which implies direct external manipulation, an automaton is defined by its internal, programmed mechanism, its will wound into clockwork. It is the whirring of brass birdsong from a gilded cage, the uncanny, repetitive scribble of a mechanical draftsman, and the relentless, mesmerizing swing of a metronome—a portrait of life meticulously simulated, yet utterly devoid of surprise.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, “self moving, self willed”). Doublet of automat.
noun
- A machine or robot designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.“He has spent many years on the automaton, and it must have cost thousands of pounds in experiment and construction.”
- A person who acts like a machine or robot, often defined as having a monotonous lifestyle and lacking in emotion.“Due to her strict adherence to her daily schedule, Jessica was becoming more and more convinced that she was an automaton.”
- A formal system, such as a finite-state machine or cellular automaton.
- A toy in the form of a mechanical figure.
- The self-acting power of the muscular and nervous systems, by which movement is effected without intelligent determination.
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