automation

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   The use of machines or software to do work that people once did by hand.

   Grammar: No plural or a/an: factory automation.

   Patterns

   • automation of something
   • automation in something

   Automation has changed how cars are built.

   The firm invested in automation to cut costs.

   Office automation freed staff from repetitive tasks.

2. 2nouncountablecomputing

   A particular system or process that runs by itself, such as a script or workflow.

   Grammar: Countable in business and computing talk: set up an automation.

   Patterns

   • set up an automation

   She set up an automation to sort her emails.

   The team built several automations for reports.

   This automation runs every night at midnight.

Word forms

Common combinations

factory automation

Factory automation reduced the need for assembly workers.

home automation

Home automation lets you control lights by phone.

industrial automation

Industrial automation raised output.

process automation

Process automation saved hours each week.

automation of tasks

The automation of routine tasks is growing.

job automation

Job automation worries many workers.

Synonyms and how they differ

mechanization

Mechanization means using machines in place of manual work, an older and narrower idea than automation.

computerization

Computerization means moving a process onto computers, while automation means it runs itself.

robotics

Robotics is the field of building robots, which are one tool of automation.

Opposites

Word family

automate verb

to make a process run by itself

automatic adjective

working by itself

automatically adverb

without human control

automated adjective

operated by machines

automaton noun

a self-operating machine

Commonly confused: automation or automaton?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “automation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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