autonomy
nounUK /ɔːˈtɒn.ə.mi/ · US /ɔˈtɑ.nə.mi/
Etymology Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτονομῐ́ᾱ (autonomĭ́ā, “freedom to use its own laws, independence”), from αὐτόνομος (autónomos, “living under one's own laws, independent”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, “-y, -ia”, nominal suffix). By surface analysis, auto- (“self”) + -nomy (“a system of rules or laws about a particular field”).
The right or condition of self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
- 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.1951, Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, Verso, published 2005, page 200:
- Financial independence and micro retirement have come to represent the autonomy I've created for myself, which is a powerful feeling.2025 May 26, Joshua Nelken-Zitser, “I 'micro-retired' in my 30s by investing every dollar from my side income. It sounds almost too simple to be true, but it works.”, in Business Insider:
Government A self-governing country or region.
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
Engineering, Mechanical engineering, Mechanics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.
- ...[T]he fact that a scientific theory finds applications to a wide variety of different phenomena does not imply anything about the autonomy of this theory from deeper physical laws.1992, Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory, Pantheon Books, page 41:
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.
- Derived terms
- autonomation, autonomic, autonomist, nonautonomy, semiautonomy
- Related terms
- autonomous, dysautonomia