automatic
Syllables: au·to·mat·icUK/ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk//ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/
automatic adjective: capable of operating without external control or intervention.
Adjective
automatic (comparative more automatic, superlative most automatic)
- 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 [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- self-operating
- Antonyms:
- manual, non-automatic
- Done out of habit or without conscious thought.
- The reaction was automatic: flight!
- Absent-minded doodling is a form of automatic art.
- Synonyms:
- instinctive, perfunctory, thoughtless, Pavlovian
- Antonyms:
- voluntary
- Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.
- Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.
- 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.
- 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. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
- 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
- Having one or more finite-state automata.
Noun
automatic (plural automatics)
- 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
- 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), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
automatic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
automatic in Hindi
- capable of operating without external control
- स्वचालित svacālit, ऑटोमैटिक ŏṭomaiṭik
automatic in Tamil
- capable of operating without external control
- தானியங்கி tāṉiyaṅki
- a car with automatic transmission
- தானியங்கி tāṉiyaṅki
automatic in Urdu
- capable of operating without external control
- خودکار xudkār
automatic in Bengali
- স্বয়ংক্রিয়, অটোমেটিক, স্বয়ংচল
More languagesFewer languages
- automatic in Malayalam
- സ്വയം പ്രവർത്തിക്കുന്ന, സ്വയം ചലിക്കുന്ന, തന്നത്താൻ പ്രവർത്തിക്കുന്ന യന്ത്രം, സ്വയംപ്രേരിതനായ
- automatic in Kannada
- ತನ್ನತಾನೇ, ತನ್ನಿಂದಾನೇ, ತಂತಾನೆ, ತನ್ನಡೆಯ
- automatic in Pashto
- اتوماتيک atūmātik, اتوماتيکي atomātiki, خودکار xwədkār
- automatic in Tagalog
- sarimuin
- automatic in Arabic
- تِلْقَائِيّ tilqāʔiyy, أُوتُوماتِيكِيّ ʔotomātīkiyy, آلِيّ ʔāliyy
- automatic in Malay
- automatik
- automatic in Persian
- خودکار xodkâr, اتوماتیک otomâtik
- automatic in Thai
- อัตโนมัติ àt-dtà-noo-mát
- automatic in Vietnamese
- tự động, tự nhiên
- automatic in Myanmar
- အော်တိုမက်တစ် autuimaktac
Examples of automatic in a sentence
- How do you explain something as natural and automatic to you as breathing?!"2021 November 10, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, Nov 10, 2021:
- '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:
Synonyms of automatic
Antonyms
Forms of automatic
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more automatic |
| superlative | most automatic |
| superlative | dubious |
| alternative form (obsolete) | automatick |
| Noun | |
| plural | automatics |
Origin of 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 base.
Words formed from automatic
- 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
- Instamatic
- laundromat
- manumatic
- nonautomatic
- -o-matic
- pseudoautomatic
- section automatic weapon
- semi-automatic
- semi-automatic transmission
- squad automatic weapon
- superautomatic
- teleautomatic
Phrases with automatic
- automatic doors
- automatic pilots
- automatic rifles
- automatic pencils
- automatic tellers
- automatic writings
- fully automatic times
- automatic transmissions
- squad automatic weapons
- automatic teller machines
- section automatic weapons
- automatic leveling systems
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with automatic
- chromatic
- emphatic
- static
- systematic
- idiomatic
- attic
- hexachromatic
- thematic
- aromatic
- democratic
- hepatic
- lymphatic
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- schematic
- adiabatic
- aristocratic
- asymptomatic
- athematic
- autocratic
- axiomatic
- chiasmatic
- erratic
- fanatic
- fluorochromatic
- interchromatic
- phlegmatic
- prismatic
- psychosomatic
- quadchromatic
- rheumatic
- sciatic
- stromatic
- aerobatic
- altermatic
- aposematic
- asthmatic
- bathochromatic
- bizygomatic
- bureaucratic
- chorochromatic
- chromocratic
- circumzygomatic
- coccochromatic
- curatic
- diabatic
- dyschromatic
- endolymphatic
- episematic
- epistatic
- frontozygomatic
- glymphatic
- goniochromatic
- graphematic
- herostratic
- hydroinformatic
- idiosyncratic
- immunochromatic
- infrazygomatic
- interzygomatic
- katabatic
- kinechromatic
Questions about automatic
- What does automatic mean?
- Automatic means capable of operating without external control or intervention.
- What is automatic in Hindi?
- Automatic in Hindi is स्वचालित (svacālit), ऑटोमैटिक (ŏṭomaiṭik). See Automatic meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use automatic in a sentence?
- How do you explain something as natural and automatic to you as breathing?!"
- What part of speech is automatic?
- Automatic can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce automatic?
- Automatic is pronounced /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/ (UK).
Words near automatic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: automatic (page history and authors); automatic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); automatic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); automatic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-automatic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “automatic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/automatic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.