different between automaton vs automate

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ????????? (autómaton), neuter of ????????? (autómatos, “self moving, self willed”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ô-t?m'?-t?n, ô-t?m'?-t?n, IPA^(key): /???t?m?t?n/, /???t?m??t?n/
• IPA^(key): /??t?m??t?n/

Noun

automaton (plural automatons or automata)

1. A machine or robot designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 9,

     Nick had heard her play through the very beginning of it a dozen times, until he was screaming at her in his head to go on. Well, now she did, watching her own hands busying up and down the keyboard as if they were astonishing automata that she had wound up and set in motion, in perfect synchrony, to produce this silvery flow of sound.

2. A person who acts like a machine or robot, often defined as having a monotonous lifestyle and lacking in emotion.

   Due to her strict adherence to her daily schedule, Jessica was becoming more and more convinced that she was an automaton.

   • July 12, 1816, Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Kercheval Monticello

     A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third, and so on 'til the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering.

3. A formal system, such as a finite-state machine or cellular automaton.
4. A toy in the form of a mechanical figure.
5. (dated) The self-acting power of the muscular and nervous systems, by which movement is effected without intelligent determination.

Hyponyms

• robot

Derived terms

• auton
• cellular automaton

Related terms

Translations

Latin

Alternative forms

• automatum

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ????????? (autómaton), neuter of ????????? (autómatos, “self-moving, self-willed”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /au??to.ma.ton/, [äu??t??mät??n]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /au??to.ma.ton/, [?u??t???m?t??n]

Noun

automaton n (genitive automat?); second declension

1. automaton
2. contraption
3. device

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type).

References

• aut?m?tus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• automaton in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??to??me?t/, [???o??me?t]
• Rhymes: -e?t

Verb

automate (third-person singular simple present automates, present participle automating, simple past and past participle automated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To replace or enhance human labor with machines.

   Many offices still need to automate.

   We saved time and money by automating the process.

Synonyms

• robotize

Related terms

• automat
• automatic
• automation
• automatization
• automatize
• automaton

Translations

French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ????????? (autómaton), neuter of ????????? (autómatos, “self moving, self willed”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /o.t?.mat/, /?.t?.mat/

Noun

automate m (plural automates)

1. automaton

Descendants

• ? Russian: automat (automat)

Further reading

• “automate” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.u.to?ma.te/

Adjective

automate

1. nominative feminine plural of automat
2. accusative feminine plural of automat
3. nominative neuter plural of automat
4. accusative neuter plural of automat

Noun

automate

1. plural of automat