autonomy
English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek αὐτονομία (autonomía), from αὐτόνομος (autónomos), from αὐτός (autós, “self”) + νόμος (nómos, “law”). Surface analysis auto- (“self”) + -nomy (“a system of rules or laws about a particular field”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɔːˈtɒnəmi/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɔˈtɑnəmi/
- (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ɑˈtɑnəmi/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)
- Self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
- 1951, Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, Verso, published 2005, page 200:
- 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.
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- (philosophy) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
- (mechanics) The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.
- (Christianity) 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.
Synonyms
- (self-government): See sovereignty
Antonyms
- (self-government): dependency, nonautonomy, inoperability
- (capacity to make independent decisions): heteronomy, incapacity
Derived terms
Translations
self-government
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capacity for individual decision
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