automaton

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: au=tom=a=ton

CIDE DICTIONARY

automaton, n. [L. fr. Gr. , neut. of self-moving; self + a root ma, man, to strive, think, cf. to strive. See Mean, v. i.].

•  Any thing or being regarded as having the power of spontaneous motion or action.  Huxley.  [1913 Webster]

  "So great and admirable an automaton as the world."  [1913 Webster]

  "These living automata, human bodies."  [1913 Webster]
•  A self-moving machine, or one which has its motive power within itself; -- applied chiefly to machines which appear to imitate spontaneously the motions of living beings, such as men, birds, etc.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

automaton, n. (pl. automata or automatons)
1 a piece of mechanism with concealed motive power.
2 a person who behaves mechanically, like an automaton.

Etymology

L f. Gk, neut. of automatos acting of itself: see AUTO-

ROGET THESAURUS

automaton

Necessity

N necessity, involuntariness, instinct, blind impulse, inborn proclivity, innate proclivity, native tendency, natural tendency, natural impulse, predetermination, necessity, necessitation, obligation, compulsion, subjection, stern necessity, hard necessity, dire necessity, imperious necessity, inexorable necessity, iron necessity, adverse necessity, fate, what must be, destiny, destination, fatality, fate, kismet, doom, foredoom, election, predestination, preordination, foreordination, lot fortune, fatalism, inevitableness, spell, star, stars, planet, planets, astral influence, sky, Fates, Parcae, Sisters three, book of fate, God's will, will of Heaven, wheel of Fortune, Ides of March, Hobson's choice, last shift, last resort, dernier ressort, pis aller, necessaries, necessarian, necessitarian, fatalist, automaton, necessary, needful, fated, destined, elect, spellbound compulsory, uncontrollable, inevitable, unavoidable, irresistible, irrevocable, inexorable, avoidless, resistless, involuntary, instinctive, automatic, blind, mechanical, unconscious, unwitting, unthinking, unintentional, impulsive, necessarily, of necessity, of course, ex necessitate rei, needs must, perforce, nolens volens, will he nil he, willy nilly, bon gre mal gre, willing or unwilling, coute que coute, faute de mieux, by stress of, if need be, it cannot be helped, there is no help for, there is no helping it, it will be, it must be, it needs to be, it must be so, it will have its way, the die is cast, jacta est alea, che sara sara, it is written, one's days are numbered, one's fate is sealed, Fata obstant, diis aliter visum, actum me invito factus, non est meus actus, aujord'hui roi demain rien, quisque suos patimur manes, The moving finger writes and having writ moves on, Nor all thy piety nor wit shall draw it back to ca.