automatic

• automatick (obsolete)

From French automatique, from Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, “self-moving, moving of oneself, self-acting, spontaneous”), from αὐτός (autós, “self, myself”) + μέμαα (mémaa, “to wish eagerly, strive, yearn, desire”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/, [ˌɔː.ɾəˈmæɾ.ɪk]
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˌɑː.təˈmæt.ɪk/, [ˌɑː.ɾəˈmæɾ.ɪk]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ætɪk

automatic (comparative more automatic, superlative most automatic) (superlative dubious)

1. Capable of operating without external control or intervention.

   Synonym: self-operating

   Antonyms: manual, non-automatic

   The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device.

2. Done out of habit or without conscious thought.

   Synonyms: instinctive, perfunctory, thoughtless

   Antonym: voluntary

   The reaction was automatic: flight!

   Absent-minded doodling is a form of automatic art.

   • 2021 November 10, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, Nov 10, 2021:

     "I don't know why! Sometimes I feel like a girl! Sometimes a guy! I don't know why I feel that way! I just do! Always have! I can't remember not feeling this way! How do you explain something as natural and automatic to you as breathing?!"

3. Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.

   Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.

4. (of a firearm such as a machine gun) Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.

   Coordinate terms: semi-automatic, burst mode, selective action, bolt action, lever action, (single-round per loading/chambering action) pump action

   Fully automatic weapons cannot be legally owned by private citizens in the US, except in very special circumstances, as by private security companies.

5. (of a handgun) An autoloader; a semi-automatic or self-loading pistol, as opposed to a revolver or other manually actuated handgun, which fires one shot per pull of the trigger; distinct from machine guns.

   The US Army adopted John Browning's M1911 pistol as its sidearm, chambered in .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol).

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece.

6. (computing, of a local variable) Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.
7. (mathematics, of a group) Having one or more finite-state automata.

• → Albanian: automatik
• → Malay: automatik

automatic (plural automatics)

1. A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.

   Antonyms: manual, manual transmission, standard transmission, stick, stickshift, stick shift

   I never learned to drive a stick. I can only drive an automatic.

2. A semi-automatic pistol.

   Coordinate term: revolver

   The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "I told him that if my automatic was not a spook-stopper, nothin' else would serve."

   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 262:

     'The automatic under his pillow gave the lie to that statement.'

(automotive):

• semi-automatic
• manumatic
• manual

Borrowed from French automatique. By surface analysis, automat +‎ -ic.

automatic m or n (feminine singular automatică, masculine plural automatici, feminine and neuter plural automatice)

1. automatic