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automaton

[aw-tom-uh-ton, -tn] / ɔˈtɒm əˌtɒn, -tn /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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At January’s conference, robots, including Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, a 6-foot-2-inch automaton weighing in at just under 200 pounds with a digital smiley face, were the stars.

From Barron's Feb. 6, 2026

On Wednesday he was an automaton, almost like a windup toy.

From Salon Dec. 19, 2025

The success of “Maybe Happy Ending” hinges in no small part on the miraculous performance of Darren Criss, who plays an automaton with a secretly sensitive heart.

From Los Angeles Times May 1, 2025

The application was consuming me, organizing my synapses like an automaton farmer who makes Munsen predictions regarding the historical flow of neurotransmission.

From Slate Oct. 28, 2023

The automaton my father discovered did save me.

From "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick

Campione has become known for her unique specialism in dolls, doll houses, automata, birdcages and corkscrews.

From BBC Sep. 7, 2024

There, in the Morris Museum’s collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata, is a music box from around 1877.

From New York Times Apr. 2, 2024

Perhaps the message was hinting at the aliens’ appearance, morse code, cellular automata or the genetic secrets of E.T.

From Scientific American Aug. 3, 2023

The link between these cellular automata and the pursuit of artificial life grew stronger when, more than two decades later, mathematician John Conway designed the Game of Life.

From Scientific American Apr. 6, 2023

Even animals, in Descartes’ view, were just automata.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

John Ruskin, a Victorian art critic, raged at how the division of labor broke down traditional communities and turned people into automatons.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 2, 2026

Wilson clearly desires children to be quiet little automatons, instead of living, complex human beings.

From Salon Feb. 16, 2026

The World Robot Olympiad opened in Singapore on Wednesday with hundreds of international students, some as young as eight, set to compete using automatons to solve real-world problems.

From Barron's Nov. 26, 2025

But by the time Descartes catalyzed the Enlightenment in the 17th century, he had reduced other animals to mere automatons, tainting centuries of science with the assumption that anything unlike us is inherently inferior.

From New York Times Mar. 26, 2024

Suddenly I had a weird thought: Could stone statues be automatons too?

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan




Vocabulary lists containing automaton


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