auto

1 of 3

noun

au·​to ˈȯ-(ˌ)tō 

ˈä-

plural autos

: automobile

auto

2 of 3

adjective

: automatic

auto-

3 of 3

combining form

variants or before a vowel aut-

1

: self : same one

autobiography

autosuggestion

2

: automatic : self-acting

autopilot

Synonyms

Noun

• automobile
• bus
• car
• horseless carriage
• machine
• motor
• motor vehicle
• motorcar
• wheels [slang]

Examples of auto in a Sentence

Noun

the auto gave people a level of mobility that they had never known before

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Sweeping tariffs shake the auto industry and its consumers Audi is directly in the firing line of Trump's tariffs, with its best-selling U.S. model, the Q5, produced in Mexico, and its remaining models all coming from Europe or elsewhere. —Christina Amann and Victoria Waldersee, USA Today, 7 Apr. 2025

The driver, Sean M. Higgins, was charged with two counts of death by auto and arrested, and the investigation is ongoing, police said. —Emma Aerin Becker, People.com, 7 Apr. 2025

Adjective

The election is a result of the agreement reached between the federal government and the union following the fallout from the long-running corruption scandal that sent former union officials and ex-auto executives to prison for misusing worker training funds, among other misdeeds. —Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press, 28 Feb. 2023

So which makes the best semi-auto shotgun? —Phil Bourjaily, Field & Stream, 25 Jan. 2021

Word History

Etymology

Noun

by shortening

Adjective

by shortening

Combining form

borrowed from Greek, combining form of autós "self, the same" (also as third person pronoun), of uncertain origin

Note: For autós R. Beekes posits as the Indo-European forerunner *h₂eu̯- "again" + *to- "that" (see that entry 1); *h₂eu̯- alone is the source of Greek aû "again, another time, in turn, next" (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009). G. E. Dunkel, who accepts Indo-European *a as a vowel and does not believe that all words must begin with a consonant, subsumes the first element of autós under *au̯- "away, off" (*au̯-tó- would hence originally have been a deictic, "the one over there") and subsumes Greek aû under *h₂u-, by-form of *h₂o- "with it, at it, and, also" (Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme, Heidelberg, 2014). Older etymological proposals (as a link between au- in autós and Sanskrit ásuḥ "life") are summarized by E. Schwyzer in Griechische Grammatik (Munich, 1990 [1938]), pp. 613-14.

First Known Use

Noun

1899, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1876, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing auto

• auto-complete
• auto-da-fé
• auto-injector
• auto responder
• auto response
• auto-suggest
• auto-suggestion
• auto-tune

Rhymes for auto

• dato
• motto
• erato
• vibrato
• yamato
• moderato
• pizzicato

Kids Definition

auto

1 of 2 noun

au·​to

ˈȯt-ō,

ˈät-

plural autos

: automobile

auto-

2 of 2

see aut-