robot
Pluralrobots
- 1A machine that can carry out complex tasks automatically, usually controlled by a computer, sometimes built or imagined to look and act like a human or animal.
A welding robot repeats the same precise motion thousands of times a day.
The rescue team sent a robot into the collapsed mine to search for survivors.
Note
The everyday, practical robot is judged by what it does, not by how human it looks. The word takes descriptive modifiers freely, and two common pairings sort robots by job and by form. An industrial robot does repetitive factory or transport work. A humanoid robot is built in a human shape, whatever its task. Household use is just as natural: a robot that does the vacuuming.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Industrial describes application; humanoid describes shape. The categories overlap: humanoid robots can perform industrial work. bmwgroup.com
- Industrial robots perform repetitive industrial tasks. osha.gov
- Humanoid robots have a human shape. en.wikipedia.org
- Robots can vacuum household floors automatically. en.wikipedia.org
- 2A software program, often called a bot, designed to perform a task automatically.
Search engines rely on a robot to index millions of pages each day.
Spammers deploy robots to create thousands of fake accounts overnight.
Similarbot
Note
Software rather than hardware: the program that indexes pages, opens accounts or sits in for someone, also called a bot. Writers reach for the full form when they want the contrast with people to sting, as in a Zoom meeting "where robots outnumbered humans." There, only context tells you that no body is involved.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The quotation is authentic wording from reporting by Lisa Bonos and Danielle Abril, rather than a participant's spoken words. en.wiktionary.org
- The robots were software apps. washingtonpost.com
- 3A person who appears to lack any emotions or individuality, behaving in a mechanical, unfeeling way.
The new manager treated his staff like robots, ignoring their needs entirely.
Stop being such a robot and tell me how you actually feel.
UsageOften used in comparisons: act like a robot, treat people like robots.
Similarautomaton, machine, drone, zombie
Note
A figure of speech borrowed from the machine: calling someone a robot says they run on instructions rather than feeling. It often brings the vocabulary of programming with it: Satya, writing in Gay Community News in 1973, describes people "programmed" from birth to conform.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The description of an unfeeling person as a robot is a figurative extension of the machine sense. en.wiktionary.org
- Satya wrote in Gay Community News in 1973 that people are programmed from birth to conform. Wiktionary identifies the article as “It Is Not We Who Must Change,” December 22, page 3. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4A street dance, popular since the 1970s, in which the dancer imitates the stiff, jerky movements of a stereotypical robot.
The crowd cheered as the breakdancer broke into the robot.
She nailed the robot, freezing sharply between each mechanical motion.
UsageUsed with the: do the robot, break into the robot.
Note
The move imitates the stiff android of popular imagination rather than any real machine. It shot to fame in late 1973, when Michael Jackson did it during the instrumental break of the Jackson 5's "Dancing Machine" on Soul Train, and poppers often fold it into their routines.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The dance imitates a stereotypical fictional android. journal.kci.go.kr
- Michael Jackson's Soul Train performance popularized the robot in late 1973. en.wikipedia.org
- Jackson performed the robot during the instrumental break of the Jackson 5's Dancing Machine on Soul Train. journals.ku.edu
- Poppers often incorporate the robot into their routines. en.wikipedia.org
- 5A traffic light controlling vehicle movement at an intersection, used especially in South African English.
Traffic backed up for blocks when the robot at the main intersection failed.
She told me to stop at the third robot and park just past it.
Similarstoplight
Note
A South African everyday word, shortened from the older "robot policeman": a machine doing the traffic officer's job. Locals give directions by it ("turn left at the second robot"), and visitors are sometimes puzzled by it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The South African traffic-light sense derives from the older expression "robot policeman". en.wiktionary.org
- The expression describes a machine taking over traffic-control work from a police officer. en.wikipedia.org
- 6In Central Europe, a form of serfdom in which tenants paid their rent through forced labor.
“I say again, down with the robot!—he is a dog who yields it!”
1849, Littell's Living Age - 7A theodolite that tracks the movements of a prism, allowing it to be operated by a one-person crew.
- 8A habitual poster on the /r9k/ board of 4chan, or a member of that online community.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of robot apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Borrowed from Czech robot, from robota ("drudgery, servitude"), the word was coined in 1920 in Karel Čapek's science-fiction play R.U.R. after being suggested to him by his brother Josef. It is ultimately cognate with Old English earfoþe and German Arbeit, and related to English orphan.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- English borrowed robot from Czech robot, derived from robota meaning drudgery or servitude. en.wiktionary.org
- The word originated in R.U.R. in 1920. web.archive.org
- The original edition was published in 1920. archive.org
- R.U.R. is a science-fiction play written by Karel Čapek. en.wikipedia.org
- Karel's brother Josef suggested the word. mzv.gov.cz
- Robot is ultimately cognate with Old English earfoþe and German Arbeit. en.wiktionary.org
- Robot and English orphan ultimately share an etymological root. en.wiktionary.org