autonomy

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐτονομία (autonomía), from αὐτόνομος (autónomos), from αὐτός (autós, “self”) + νόμος (nómos, “law”). Surface analysis auto- (“self”) +‎ -nomy (“a system of rules or laws about a particular field”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔːˈtɒnəmi/
• IPA^(key): /ɔˈtɑnəmi/
• IPA^(key): /ɑˈtɑnəmi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)

1. Self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
   • 1951, Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia‎^[1], Verso, published 2005, page 200:

     But while assiduously dismissing any though of its own autonomy and proclaiming its victims its judges, it outdoes, in its veiled autocracy, all the excesses of autonomous art.

2. (philosophy) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
3. (mechanics) The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.
4. (Christianity) 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.

Synonyms

• (self-government): See sovereignty

Antonyms

• (self-government): dependency, nonautonomy, inoperability
• (capacity to make independent decisions): heteronomy, incapacity

Derived terms

• autonomic
• autonomous, autonomously

Translations

self-government

• Albanian: autonomi (sq) f
• Arabic: اِسْتِقْلال m (istiqlāl), تَحَرُّر m (taḥarrur)
• Armenian: ինքնավարություն (hy) (inkʻnavarutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: muxtariyyət
• Belarusian: аўтано́мія f (aŭtanómija)
• Bulgarian: автоно́мия (bg) f (avtonómija), незави́симост (bg) f (nezavísimost)
• Catalan: autonomia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自治 (zh) (zìzhì)

• Czech: územní samospráva f, autonomie (cs) f
• Danish: autonomi n, selvstyre n
• Dutch: autonomie (nl) f
• Estonian: autonoomia (et)
• Faroese: sjálvstýri n, sjálvræði n
• Finnish: autonomia (fi), itsehallinto (fi)
• French: autonomie (fr) f
• Georgian: ავტონომია (avṭonomia)
• German: Autonomie (de) f
• Greek: αυτονομία (el) f (aftonomía)
• Hebrew: אוֹטוֹנוֹמְיָה (he) f (otonomia)
• Hungarian: önrendelkezés (hu)
• Icelandic: sjálfræði n, sjálfsstjórn f
• Ido: autonomeso (io)
• Interlingue:
• Italian: autonomia (it) f
• Japanese: 自治 (ja) (じち, jichi)
• Kazakh: мұхтарият (mūxtariät), автономия (kk) (avtonomiä)
• Korean: 자치 (ko) (jachi); 자율성 (ko) (jayulseong)
• Kyrgyz: автономия (ky) (avtonomiya)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latvian: autonomija f
• Lithuanian: autonomija f
• Macedonian: автономија f (avtonomija)
• Maori: mana motuhake
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: selvstyre n, sjølstyre n, autonomi (no) m

  Nynorsk: sjølvstyre n, autonomi m

• Occitan: autonomia f
• Persian: خودمختاری (fa) (xodmoxtâri)
• Polish: autonomia (pl) f
• Portuguese: autonomia (pt) f
• Romanian: autonomie (ro) f
• Russian: автоно́мия (ru) f (avtonómija), незави́симость (ru) f (nezavísimostʹ), самоуправле́ние (ru) n (samoupravlénije)
• Scottish Gaelic: fèin-ùghdarras m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: аутоно̀мија f

  Roman: autonòmija (sh) f

• Slovak: autonómia f
• Slovene: avtonomija f
• Spanish: autonomía (es) f
• Swedish: autonomi (sv) c
• Tajik: автономия (tg) (avtonomiya), мухторият (tg) (muxtoriyat)
• Telugu: స్వయంప్రతిపత్తి (svayampratipatti)
• Thai: อัตตาณัติ, ภาวะอิสระ, การปกครองตนเอง
• Turkish: özerklik (tr)
• Turkmen: özbaşdaklyk
• Ukrainian: автоно́мія (uk) f (avtonómija)
• Uzbek: avtonomiya (uz), muxtoriyat (uz)
• Vietnamese: tự trị (vi)

capacity for individual decision

• Afrikaans: outonomie (af)
• Albanian: autonomi (sq)
• Belarusian: самасто́йнасць f (samastójnascʹ)
• Bulgarian: самостоятелност (bg) (samostojatelnost)
• Catalan: autonomy f
• Finnish: itsenäisyys (fi), itsemääräämisoikeus (fi)
• French: autonomie (fr) f
• Greek: αυτονομία (el) f (aftonomía)
• Icelandic: sjálfræði n, sjálfsstjórn f
• Interlingue:
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: autonomia (it) f
• Japanese: 自律 (jiritsu), 自主 (ja) (jishusei), 主体性 (shutaisei)
• Korean: 자율 (ko) (jayul)
• Portuguese: autonomia (pt) f
• Russian: самостоя́тельность (ru) f (samostojátelʹnostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: аутоно̀мија f

  Roman: autonòmija (sh) f

• Spanish: autonomía (es) f
• Telugu: స్వతంత్రత (svatantrata)
• Ukrainian: самості́йність f (samostíjnistʹ)