semiautomatic

adjective

semi·​au·​to·​mat·​ic ˌse-mē-ˌȯ-tə-ˈma-tik 

ˌse-ˌmī-, 

-mi-

: not fully automatic: such as

a

: operated partly automatically and partly by hand

b

of a firearm : able to fire repeatedly through an automatic reloading process but requiring release and another pressure of the trigger for each successive shot

a semiautomatic rifle

semiautomatic noun

semiautomatically

ˌse-mē-ˌȯ-tə-ˈma-ti-k(ə-)lē 

ˌse-ˌmī-, 

-mi-

adverb

Examples of semiautomatic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Police said a gunman arrived on a bicycle, opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun and fled, prompting an overnight manhunt. —Daniel Lempres, Sacbee.com, 8 Jan. 2026

Bump stocks are devices that make semiautomatic guns mimic fully automatic firearms. —CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026

Restrictions were tightened almost 30 years ago after a lone gunman armed with semiautomatic weapons killed 35 people at the Port Arthur historic tourist site in Tasmania. —Hira Humayun, CNN Money, 19 Dec. 2025

That bloodletting resulted in legislation that banned ownership of most automatic and semiautomatic rifles and drastically reduced the number of mass killings in Australia. —Matt Bradley, NBC news, 16 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1853, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for semiautomatic

• antidemocratic
• bacteriostatic
• heterochromatic
• idiosyncratic
• nonadiabatic
• paleoclimatic
• achromatic
• acrobatic
• adriatic
• aliphatic
• antistatic
• aromatic