Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Autonomy
1.
The power or right of self-government; self-government, or political independence, of a city or a state.
2.
(Metaph.)
The sovereignty of reason in the sphere of morals; or man’s power, as possessed of reason, to give law to himself. In this, according to Kant, consist the true nature and only possible proof of liberty.
Fleming.
Webster 1828 Edition
Autonomy
AUTON'OMY
,Noun.
This word is rarely used. It signifies the power or right of self government, whether in a city which elects its own magistrates and makes its own laws, or in an individual who lives according to his own will.
Definition 2024
autonomy
autonomy
English
Noun
autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)
- Self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
- (philosophy) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
- (mechanics) The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.
- (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): nationhood, nationality, sovereignty, independence
Antonyms
- (self-government): dependency, nonautonomy, inoperability
- (capacity to make independent decisions): heteronomy, incapacity
Derived terms
Translations
self-government
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capacity for individual decision