auton
/ˈɔː.tɒn/US/ˈɑ.tɑn/
auton noun: a machine or robot, usually in the form of a living being, designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
Noun
auton (plural autons)
- A machine or robot, usually in the form of a living being, designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
- Not far away in the woods the Auton had been standing motionless under a tree. It was shaped like a man but it was not human.1974, Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, page 55
- Juan made seven attempts to pervert the auton. One involved twelve hundred years of careful observation, timing the failure of various subsystems, maneuvering the auton into a position where he might take control and get transportation to resources in near space.1986, Vernor Vinge, Marooned in Realtime
Proper noun capitalized: Auton
Auton (plural Autons)
- A surname.
Forms of auton
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | autons |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Autons |
Origin of auton
Coined by Robert Holmes in 1969, from a contraction of automaton.
Questions about auton
- What does auton mean?
- Auton means a machine or robot, usually in the form of a living being, designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
- What part of speech is auton?
- Auton can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce auton?
- Auton is pronounced /ˈɔː.tɒn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of auton?
- The plural of auton is autons.
Words near auton in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: auton (page history and authors); Auton (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-auton.wav.
Cite this entry: “auton.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/auton. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.