AUTONOMY

autonomy, liberty

(noun) immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence

autonomy, self-direction, self-reliance, self-sufficiency

(noun) personal independence

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)

Self-government; freedom to act or function independently.

(philosophy) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.

(mechanics) The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.

(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.

Synonyms

• (self-government): See sovereignty

Antonyms

• (self-government): dependency, nonautonomy, inoperability

• (capacity to make independent decisions): heteronomy, incapacity

Source: Wiktionary


Au*ton"o*my, n. Etym: [Gr. autonomie. See Autonomous.]

1. The power or right of self-government; self-government, or political independence, of a city or a state.

2. (Metaph.)

Definition: The sovereignty of reason in the sphere of morals; or man's power, as possessed of reason, to give law to himself. In this, according to Kant, consist the true nature and only possible proof of liberty. Fleming.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

21 January 2025

TRACE

(verb) follow, discover, or ascertain the course of development of something; “We must follow closely the economic development is Cuba”; “trace the student’s progress”; “trace one’s ancestry”


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