automatic
Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
Example
“The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device.”
Other meanings
Done out of habit or without conscious thought.
“The reaction was automatic: flight!”
Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.
“Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.”
Related words
- automatic pilot
- automagic
- automaticness
- automatist
- biautomatic
- Instamatic
- laundromat
- nonautomatic
- pseudoautomatic
- superautomatic
- teleautomatic
- automatical
Example sentences
Word history
From Ancient Greek "αὐτόματον".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “automatic” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.