automatic

Capable of operating without external control or intervention.

Adjective

  1. Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
    • The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device.
    • "But you know of the automatic card-player?" […] Carrados had heard more than once casual allusions to a wonderful mechanical contrivance that played cards with discrimination. - 1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max...

    Synonyms: self-operating

    Antonyms: manual non-automatic

  2. Done out of habit or without conscious thought.
    • The reaction was automatic: flight!
    • Absent-minded doodling is a form of automatic art.
    • "I don't know why! Sometimes I feel like a girl! Sometimes a guy! I don't know why I feel that way! I just do! Always have! I can't remember not feeling this way! How do you explain something as natural and automatic to...

    Synonyms: instinctive perfunctory thoughtless

    Antonyms: voluntary

  3. Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.
    • Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.
  4. Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.
    • Fully automatic weapons cannot be legally owned by private citizens in the US, except in very special circumstances, as by private security companies.

    Coordinate Terms: semi-automatic burst mode selective action bolt action lever action pump action

  5. An autoloader; a semi-automatic or self-loading pistol, as opposed to a revolver or other manually actuated handgun, which fires one shot per pull of the trigger; distinct from machine guns.
    • The US Army adopted John Browning's M1911 pistol as its sidearm, chambered in .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol).
    • From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece. - 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no....
  6. Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.
    • Automatic variables are created on the stack. They are valid only from the point where they are declared to the end of the function. - 2012, Robert Clair, Learning Objective-C 2.0: A Hands-on Guide:
  7. Having one or more finite-state automata.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder.? Proto-Indo-European *sóder.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder. Ancient Greek αὖ (aû) Ancient Greek τόν (tón)? Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós) Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-) Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *mn̥tós Proto-Hellenic *mətós Ancient Greek αὐτόμᾰτος (autómătos) Ancient Greek αὐτόμᾰτον (autómăton)der. Classical Latin automatum New Latin automaticusbor. English automatic Borrowed from New Latin automaticus, from Classical Latin automatum (“automaton”) + -icus (adjectival suffix), from Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, “self-moving, moving of oneself, self-acting, spontaneous”), from αὐτός (autós, “self, myself”) + μέμαα (mémaa, “to wish eagerly, strive, yearn, desire”). The original pronunciation, apparently with stress on the second syllable, was after the ultimate Greek...

Forms

more automatic most automatic dubious automatick

Related

automagical automat automation automatization automatize automaton automobile autopilot

Derived

automagic automatical automatically automatic data processing machine automatic differentiation automatic distance control automatic door automatic half-barrier level crossing automaticity automatic leveling system automatic litter box automaticness automatic pencil automatic pilot automatic rifle automatic teller automatic teller machine automatic train control automatic transmission automatic writing automatist biautomatic fully-automatic fully automatic time

Noun

  1. A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.
    • I never learned to drive a stick. I can only drive an automatic.

    Antonyms: manual manual transmission standard transmission stick stickshift stick shift

  2. A semi-automatic pistol.
    • The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns.
    • "I told him that if my automatic was not a spook-stopper, nothin' else would serve." - 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html),...
    • 'The automatic under his pillow gave the lie to that statement.' - 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 262:

    Coordinate Terms: revolver

Forms

automatics automatick

Related

semi-automatic manumatic manual