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autonomy (disambiguation)

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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”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔːˈtɒn.ə.mi/
• (General American, Atlantic Canada) IPA^(key): /ɔˈtɑ.nə.mi/
• (cot–caught merger, General American, Atlantic Canada) IPA^(key): /ɑˈtɑ.nə.mi/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /oːˈtɔn.ə.mi/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): [oːˈtɔ̟n.ə.mi]
• Rhymes: -ɒnəmi

autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)

1. (uncountable) The right or condition of self-government; freedom to act or function independently.

   Antonyms: dependency, heteronomy, servitude, nonautonomy, inoperability

   Coordinate term: sovereignty

   • 1951, Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia‎^[1], 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.

   • 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^[2]:

     Financial independence and micro retirement have come to represent the autonomy I've created for myself, which is a powerful feeling.

2. (government, countable) A self-governing country or region.
3. (philosophy, uncountable) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
5. (mechanics, uncountable) The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.

   Antonyms: heteronomy, incapacity

   • 1992, Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory, Pantheon Books, page 41:

     ...[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.

6. (Christianity, uncountable) 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.

• “autonomy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “autonomy”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.