android

noun

an·​droid ˈan-ˌdrȯid 

: a mobile robot usually with a human form

sci-fi androids

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The android is there as part of the Ars Electronica festival. —IEEE Spectrum, 22 Apr. 2010

Indeed, this year has seen architects, designers and entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of what might one day be possible, including designs for rain-catching skyscrapers and the Tesla Bot android (maybe Dick's ideas weren't so far off the mark, after all). —CNN, 28 Dec. 2021

This image shows the front view of an android designed to look and act like Bina Rothblatt. —Discover Magazine, 2 Aug. 2010

Thus, entertainer and author Janelle Monáe’s use of the android as a metaphor for an exploited body struggling to be freed offers a critique of oppression linked to race and gender. —Julian C. Chambliss, The Conversation, 17 June 2022

Nikola is an android under development at Riken, a scientific research institute in Japan. —IEEE Spectrum, 14 Feb. 2023

Because Mika is very attached to Yang, Jake doesn’t want to trade in the android and hopes to find a way to repair him. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2022

Of course, the ultimate goal — at least in robotics and AI — is to make a robot or android that is indistinguishable from a human. —Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 3 Nov. 2021

The new android Aiko was developed with the help of Osaka University, which has been working with animatronic androids for more than a decade, as well as aLab Inc., the Shibaura Institute of Technology, and Shonan Institute of Technology. —IEEE Spectrum, 2 Dec. 2014

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Word History

Etymology

earlier androides "automaton having a human form," borrowed from French androïde, perhaps borrowed from Late Greek androeidḗs "in the form of a man, like a man," from Greek andr-, anḗr "man, husband, human" + -oeidēs -oid entry 2 — more at andro-

Note: The word may equally well have been formed in post-medieval Latin, but evidence is lacking. An early English instance can be found in The History of Magick by way of Apology, for all the Wise Men who have unjustly been reputed Magicians (London, 1657), a translation, by "J. Davies," of Apologie pour tous les grands personnages qui ont esté faussement soupçonnez de magie (Paris, 1625) by the French librarian and scholar Gabriel Naudé (1600-53). The French word occurs earlier in Le mastigophore, ou precurseur du Zodiaque ([Paris]: 1609), a satirical work by the priest Antoine Fuzy/Fusi (1560-1629). Both authors use androïde in connection with the legendary talking automaton devised by albertus magnus, without any suggestion that the word was a neologism.

First Known Use

circa 1736, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

android

adjective

an·​droid ˈan-ˌdrȯid 

1

of the pelvis : having the angular form and narrow outlet typical of the human male

a disproportionate number of difficult labors occur in women with android pelvises

compare anthropoid entry 1, gynecoid, platypelloid

2

: relating to or characterized by the distribution of body fat chiefly in the abdominal region

android obesity

compare gynecoid