autonomy
English · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
autonomy
- /ɔːˈtɒn.ə.mi/ UK
- /ɔˈtɑ.nə.mi/ Atlantic Canada, US
- /ɑˈtɑ.nə.mi/ Atlantic Canada, US, cot caught merger
- /oːˈtɔn.ə.mi/ Australia
- [oːˈtɔ̟n.ə.mi] New Zealand
Rhymes with -ɒnəmi
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτονομῐ́ᾱ (autonomĭ́ā, “freedom to use its own laws, independence”), from αὐτόνομος (autónomos, “living under one's own laws, independent”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, “-y, -ia”, nominal suffix). By surface analysis, auto- (“self”) + -nomy (“a system of rules or laws about a particular field”).
noun autonomies
-
The right or condition of self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
But while assiduously dismissing any though of its own autonomy and proclaiming its victims its judges, it outdoes, in its veiled autocracy, all the excesses of autonomous art.
Opposite: dependency, heteronomy, servitude, nonautonomy, inoperability
- A self-governing country or region.
- The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
-
The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.
...[T]he fact that a scientific theory finds applications to a wide variety of different phenomena does not imply anything about the autonomy of this theory from deeper physical laws.
Opposite: heteronomy, incapacity
- The status of a church whose highest-ranking bishop is appointed by the patriarch of the mother church, but which is self-governing in all other respects. Compare autocephaly.
Translations
Every language
noun self-government
| Español | autonomía |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 자치 jachi |
| 日本語 | 自治 jichi |
| 中文 | 自治 zìzhì |
| हिन्दी | स्वायत्तता svāyattatā, स्वराज svarāj, आत्मशासन ātmaśāsan |
| Português | autonomia |
| Français | autonomie |
| Deutsch | Autonomie |
| Italiano | autonomia |
| Ελληνικά | αυτονομία aftonomía |
| Română | autonomie |
| Русский | автоно́мия avtonómija, незави́симость nezavísimostʹ, самоуправле́ние samoupravlénije |
| Tiếng Việt | tự trị |
| العربية | اِسْتِقْلال istiqlāl, تَحَرُّر taḥarrur |
| עברית | אוֹטוֹנוֹמְיָה otonomia |
Talk about this word "autonomy." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/autonomy. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. autonomy. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/autonomy "autonomy." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/autonomy.Cite this
@misc{autonomy_2026,
title = {autonomy},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/autonomy},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
