adjective
- Government.
- self-governing; independent; subject to its own laws only.
- pertaining to an autonomy, or a self-governing community.
- having autonomy; not subject to control from outside; independent: a subsidiary that functioned as an autonomous unit.
- (of a vehicle) navigated and maneuvered by a computer without a need for human control or intervention under a range of driving situations and conditions: an autonomous vehicle.
- Biology.
- existing and functioning as an independent organism.
- growing naturally or spontaneously, without cultivation.
adjective
- (of a community, country, etc) possessing a large degree of self-government
- of or relating to an autonomous community
- independent of others
- philosophy
- acting or able to act in accordance with rules and principles of one’s own choosing
- (in the moral philosophy of Kant, of an individual’s will) directed to duty rather than to some other endCompare heteronomous (def. 3) See also categorical imperative
- biology existing as an organism independent of other organisms or parts
- a variant spelling of autonomic (def. 3)
adj.1800, from Greek autonomos “having one’s own laws,” of animals, “feeding or ranging at will,” from autos “self” (see auto-) + nomos “law” (see numismatics). Cf. privilege. Used mostly in metaphysics and politics; see autonomic.