Autonomous vs. Automatic — What's the Difference?

Not controlled by others or by outside forces; independent

Acting or operating in a manner essentially independent of external influence or control

Independent in mind or judgment; self-directed.

Self-regulating

Independent of the laws of another state or government; self-governing.

Acting or done without volition or conscious control; involuntary

Of or relating to a self-governing entity

Acting or done as if by machine; mechanical

Self-governing with respect to local or internal affairs

Capable of firing continuously until ammunition is exhausted or the trigger is released

Autonomic.

Semiautomatic

Self-governing. Intelligent, sentient, self-aware, thinking, feeling, governing independently.

An automatic machine or device.

Acting on one's own or independently; of a child, acting without being governed by parental or guardian rules.

An automatic firearm.

Used with no subject, indicating an unknown or unspecified agent; used in similar situations as the passive in English (the difference being that the theme in the English passive construction is the subject, while in the Celtic autonomous construction the theme is the object and there is no subject).

A semiautomatic firearm.

Independent in government; having the right or power of self-government.

A transmission or a motor vehicle with an automatic gear-shifting mechanism.

Having independent existence or laws.

(Football) See audible.

Of political bodies;

Capable of operating without external control or intervention.

Existing as an independent entity;

Done out of habit or without conscious thought.

Of persons; free from external control and constraint in e.g. action and judgment

Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.

(of a firearm such as a machine gun) Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.

(of a handgun) An autoloader; a semi-automatic or self-loading pistol, as opposed to a revolver or other manually actuated handgun, which fires one shot per pull of the trigger; distinct from machine guns.

Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.

Having one or more finite-state automata.

A car with automatic transmission.

A semi-automatic pistol.

Having an inherent power of action or motion.

Pertaining to, or produced by, an automaton; of the nature of an automaton; self-acting or self-regulating under fixed conditions; operating with minimal human intervention; - esp. applied to machinery or devices in which certain things formerly or usually done by hand are done by the machine or device itself; as, the automatic feed of a lathe; automatic gas lighting; an automatic engine or switch; an automatic mouse; an automatic transmission. The opposite of manual.

Not voluntary; not depending on the will; mechanical; controlled by the autonomic nervous system; without conscious control; as, automatic movements or functions. The opposite of voluntary.

Like the unthinking functioning of a machine.

Light machine gun.

A pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone or the trigger is released; as, a .45 automatic.

Light machine gun

A pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone or the trigger is released

Operating with minimal human intervention; independent of external control;

Like the unthinking functioning of a machine;

Without volition or conscious control;