different between autonomy vs futility

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ?????????? (autonomí?, “freedom to use its own laws, independence”), from ????????? (autónomos, “living under one's own laws, independent”) +? -??? (-í?, “-y, -ia”, nominal suffix). Surface analysis auto- (“self”) +? -nomy (“a system of rules or laws about a particular field”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???t?n.?m.i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??t?n.?m.i/
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /??t?n.?m.i/
• Rhymes: -?n?mi

Noun

autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)

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

   Synonym: sovereignty

   Antonyms: dependency, nonautonomy, inoperability

   1. (government, countable) A self-governing country or region.
2. (philosophy, uncountable) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
3. (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

4. (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.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

• “autonomy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “autonomy”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).

English

Etymology

futile +? -ity

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?l?ti

Noun

futility (usually uncountable, plural futilities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being futile or useless.

   His taking the bar exam for a third time was pure futility.

2. (countable) Something, especially an act, that is futile.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XIII, Democracy

     No man oppresses thee, can bid thee fetch or carry, come or go, without reason shewn. […] No man, wiser, unwiser, can make thee come or go: but thy own futilities, bewilderments, thy false appetites for Money, Windsor Georges and such like?
3. (uncountable) Unimportance.

Translations