android

Pluralandroids

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A robot designed to look and act like a human being, whether it resembles a man or a woman.

   The android's face could smile, frown and blink almost exactly like a person's.

   Engineers dressed the android in a lab coat and programmed her to lead tours of the robotics lab.

   Similarhumanoid

   Note

   The robot sense wears its Greek openly: andr-, “man, human,” joined to -oid, from a word for form or look, makes a thing in human form. Although the root can mean a male, the word is not limited to one: it covers robots built to look like women as well as those built to look like men.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A human being made by artificial means.

   The novel's android was grown from synthetic tissue and could pass any medical exam.

   Unlike the clanking robots of older films, the androids in the series bleed, age and dream.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having the qualities or characteristics of a human being.

   The lab's newest model is an android robot with soft skin and a face that can register surprise.

   Visitors found the robot receptionist's android features unsettling: the smile was right, but the blink came a beat too late.

   Similarhumanoid, humanlike

4. 4
   adjective

   Characteristic of men rather than women.

   Android obesity, with fat gathered around the waist, carries a higher risk of heart disease than fat stored on the hips.

   The scan showed an android distribution of fat, concentrated in the abdomen rather than the thighs.

   Oppositegynoid

   Note

   Its opposite is gynoid, and the two work as a pair to describe where the body stores fat: android around the waist and belly, gynoid lower down, on the hips and thighs. As with the pelvic shape, the label names a pattern rather than the person's sex, so a woman can carry fat in an android way.

5. 5
   adjective

   Of a pelvis, having a narrow front segment and a heart-shaped brim, the shape typically found in males.

   Pelvimetry revealed an android pelvis, so the obstetrician warned that labor might be prolonged.

   Anatomy students learn to tell an android pelvis by its heart-shaped inlet from the rounder type more common in women.

   Note

   Pelvimetry sorts the pelvis into a few standard types, judged mainly at the brim, the inlet of the birth canal. The name describes a shape, not a sex: a woman can have an android pelvis, and because its narrow, wedge-like front leaves less room for a baby's head, that is when the term matters most, in obstetrics.

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