Robotic

How to spell robotic

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce robotic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does robotic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to robots or to machines that perform tasks automatically.
2. adjectiveStiff, automatic, and lacking warmth or expression, as if done by a machine.

Robotic in a sentence

• The factory installed a new robotic arm to weld the car panels.

• After the long shift her replies grew flat and robotic.

• The surgeon used a robotic system to make the incisions more precise.

• He gave a robotic nod and kept staring at the screen.

Where does robotic come from?

Language of origin: Other

The word grows out of robot, a term coined by the Czech writer Karel Capek for his 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). Capek built it on the Czech word robota, which literally meant 'forced labour' or 'drudgery', the compulsory work once owed by peasants to their lords. The play's artificial workers gave the word its modern meaning, and it spread rapidly into English through translations during the 1920s. The adjective robotic was formed in English by adding the familiar -ic ending, and it carries two flavours: literally 'of robots' and figuratively 'stiff and mechanical, as if performed without feeling'. Because the root is a single short syllable, robot, the spelling keeps a single b and a single t, which is the small point writers occasionally second-guess.

How the word is built

• robot (from Czech robota: forced labour)
• -ic (adjective suffix)