Meaning & use
automaton
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Meanings
nouncountable
A mechanical figure built to move by itself, often to copy the actions of a person or animal.
Grammar: Countable, with two plurals: automatons or automata.
Patterns
- an automaton that does something
The museum displays a clockwork automaton that dips a pen and writes a short sentence.
Medieval towns sometimes had an automaton that struck the hours on the clock tower.
The inventor spent years building an automaton in the shape of a singing bird.
nouncountablefigurativedisapproving
A person who acts in a mechanical, unthinking way, as if following orders without feeling.
Grammar: Used figuratively, often with like or as: he moved like an automaton.
Patterns
- move like an automaton
- behave like an automaton
After a month on the night shift, he walked to work like an automaton.
The training made them mere automatons who never questioned an order.
She answered the questions in a flat voice, an automaton repeating its script.
nouncountabletechnicalcomputing
In computer science and mathematics, an abstract machine that moves between a set number of states according to fixed rules.
Grammar: Usually appears in technical phrases such as finite automaton.
Patterns
- a finite automaton
A simple turnstile can be modelled as a finite automaton with two states.
The course begins with automata theory and the languages that such machines recognize.
He drew the automaton as a set of circles joined by labeled arrows.
Word forms
| plural | automatons |
|---|---|
| plural | automata |
Common combinations
- clockwork automaton
- The clockwork automaton bowed to each visitor before the spring ran down.
- like an automaton
- She went through the morning routine like an automaton.
- finite automaton
- A finite automaton can check whether a string of symbols follows a simple pattern.
- mechanical automaton
- A mechanical automaton in the shop window played a tiny violin.
- human automaton
- The factory work turned him into a human automaton who hardly spoke.
Synonyms and how they differ
- robot
- Robot usually suggests a modern programmable machine, while automaton suggests an older, often clockwork device built to look alive.
- android
- Android names a robot made to look human, so it is narrower than automaton, which may copy an animal or only a gesture.
- drone
- For people, drone stresses dull, repetitive labor, whereas automaton stresses acting mechanically and without feeling.
- zombie
- Zombie describes someone dazed or exhausted, but automaton suggests rigid, rule-bound action.
Word family
- automatic adjective
- working by itself, or done without thinking
- automate verb
- to make a process run by machine
- automation noun
- the use of machines to do work once done by people
- automatically adverb
- without conscious thought or direct control
- automatism noun
- an action performed without conscious intention
Commonly confused: automaton or automation?
automaton vs automation
An automaton is a machine or a mechanical-acting person, while automation is the process of replacing manual work with machines.
Practice
After years of repeating the same tasks, she began to move through the office like an ___.
Choose one answer.
Like an automaton means mechanically and without thought. Automation is the process of using machines, not a thing a person can resemble.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “automaton”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.