automate

verb

au·​to·​mate ˈȯ-tə-ˌmāt How to pronounce automate (audio)
automated; automating

transitive verb

1
: to operate by automation
2
: to convert to largely automatic operation
automate a process

intransitive verb

: to undergo automation
automatable adjective

Examples of automate in a Sentence

The company recently automated its filing process. a factory that has yet to be automated a factory that has yet to automate When companies automate, employees lose jobs.
Recent Examples on the Web
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Additionally, if your client is paying you regularly, setting up automated, recurring payments can ensure you get paid on time. Juliana Berger, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025 Tech entrepreneur and investor Vinod Khosla’s prediction of AI automating 80% of high-value jobs by 2030 coincides with a reckoning for Fortune 500 companies. Jim Edwards, Fortune, 1 July 2025 In February, a labor report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that computer-science majors had a higher unemployment rate than ethnic-studies majors did—the result, some believed, of A.I. automating entry-level coding jobs. Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 30 June 2025 Medical staff administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator shock and called 911, ICE said, but Noviello was pronounced dead by the Miami Fire Rescue Department about half an hour after he was found. N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 27 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for automate

Word History

Etymology

back-formation from automation

Note: The formation of automation from automatic entry 1 (or automaton) is idiosyncratic. The -at- of automatic is blended with the suffix -ation, resulting in a word that is no longer divisible into base and suffix. The element -at- mimics, as it were, the -at- of -ate entry 4 and -ation, though in origin it has no relation to it. Another approach to this curious derivation might be to take it as a blend of automatic and operation, though there is no evidence that the coiner had this in mind. A more regular way to derive a verb from automatic would be automatize, and in fact such a word is attested (see automatize, but with a different sense), along with a corresponding noun automatization. In a discussion on automation with the editors of the Atlantic Monthly the mathematician Norbert wiener was said to take "a firm stand on nomenclature": "'Automation,' he says, is barbarous; let it be 'automatization' or nothing" ("Science and Industry," Atlantic Monthly, vol. 195, no. 6 [June, 1955], p. 14). See also the note at automation.

First Known Use

1952, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of automate was in 1952

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Cite this Entry

“Automate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/automate. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.

Kids Definition

automate

verb
au·​to·​mate ˈȯt-ə-ˌmāt How to pronounce automate (audio)
automated; automating
1
: to operate by automation
2
: to convert to mainly automatic operation

More from Merriam-Webster on automate

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