auto-

See also: auto, Auto, autó, aùto, autō, aŭto, Auto., and Appendix:Variations of "auto"

English

Alternative forms

• aut- (used before a vowel)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɔː.tə-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔ.tə-/, [ˈɔɾə-]
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑ.tə-/, [ˈɑɾə-]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: au‧to-

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-, “self-”).

Prefix

auto-

2. Reflexive, regarding or to oneself.

   ‎auto- + ‎biography → ‎autobiography

   ‎auto- + ‎erotic → ‎autoerotic

Synonyms

• self-, ipsi-

Antonyms

• allo-, hetero- (different)
• syn- (concomitant)
• inter- (reciprocal)
• co-, con-/com-/col-/cor-, syn-/sym-/syl-, inter- (mutual)

Derived terms

English terms prefixed with auto- (self)

• autoclave
• automaton
• autosome

Translations

regarding oneself

• Afrikaans: outo-
• Albanian: auto-
• Aragonese: auto-
• Armenian: ինքն (hy) (inkʻn), ավտո- (avto-)
• Asturian: auto-
• Azerbaijani: avto-
• Basque: auto- (eu)
• Belarusian: аўта- (aŭta-)
• Bulgarian: авто- (avto-)
• Catalan: auto- (ca)
• Czech: auto- (cs)
• Danish: auto-, selv-
• Dutch: auto- (nl)
• Esperanto: aŭto-
• Estonian: auto- (et)
• Finnish: auto- (fi), itse-, oma- (fi)
• French: auto- (fr)
• Galician: auto- (gl)
• Georgian: ავტო- (avṭo-)
• German: auto- (de)
• Greek: αυτο- (el) (afto-)

  Ancient: αὐτό- (autó-)

• Hebrew: אוֹטוֹ־ (oto-)
• Hindi: आत्म (hi) (ātma)
• Hungarian: auto- (hu)
• Ido: auto-
• Indonesian: auto-, swa-
• Interlingua: auto-
• Italian: auto- (it)
• Kazakh: авто- (avto-)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: oto- (ku)

• Kyrgyz: авто- (avto-)
• Latin: auto-
• Latvian: auto-
• Lithuanian: auto-
• Macedonian: авто- (avto-)
• Malay: swa- (ms)
• Maltese: awto-
• Moroccan Amazigh: -ⵎⴰⵏ m (-man), -ⵎⴰⵏⵜ f (-mant), -ⵎⴰⵏⵏ pl or m pl (-mann), -ⵎⴰⵏⵉⵏ pl or f pl (-manin)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: selv-, auto-

  Nynorsk: auto-

• Occitan: auto-
• Persian: اتو (fa) (oto-), خود (fa) (xod-)
• Polish: auto- (pl), samo- (pl)
• Portuguese: auto- (pt)
• Romanian: auto- (ro)

  Cyrillic: ауто- (auto-)

• Russian: авто- (ru) (avto-), само- (ru) (samo-), себе- (sebe-)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ауто-

  Roman: auto-

• Sicilian: autu-
• Slovak: auto-
• Slovene: avto-
• Spanish: auto- (es)
• Swedish: auto- (sv)
• Tagalog: awto-
• Tajik: авто- (avto-)
• Turkish: oto- (tr)
• Turkmen: awto-
• Ukrainian: авто- (uk) (avto-)
• Uzbek: avto- (uz)
• Yiddish: אויטאָ־ (oyto-)

Etymology 2

Clipping of automatic.

Prefix

auto-

2. Automatic.

   ‎auto- + ‎focus → ‎autofocus

   ‎auto- + ‎loader → ‎autoloader

   ‎auto- + ‎walk → ‎autowalk

Derived terms

English terms prefixed with auto- (automatic)

Translations

automatic

• Armenian: ինքն (hy) (inkʻn)
• Bulgarian: авто- (avto-)
• Czech: samo-
• Danish: auto-
• Finnish: auto- (fi), automaatti- (fi), automaattinen (fi)
• French: auto- (fr)
• Greek: αυτο- (el) (afto-)
• Ido: auto-
• Italian: auto- (it)
• Korean: 자동 (ko) (jadong)
• Moroccan Amazigh: -ⵎⴰⵏ m (-man), -ⵎⴰⵏⵜ f (-mant), -ⵎⴰⵏⵏ pl or m pl (-mann), -ⵎⴰⵏⵉⵏ pl or f pl (-manin)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: auto-

  Nynorsk: auto-

• Polish: auto- (pl), samo- (pl)
• Portuguese: auto- (pt)
• Russian: авто- (ru) (avto-)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ауто-

  Roman: auto-

Etymology 3

Clipping of automobile, equivalent to auto- (“self”) + mobile.

Prefix

auto-

2. Relating to cars or the driving of cars.

   ‎auto- + ‎cross → ‎autocross

   ‎auto- + ‎-phile → ‎autophile

Derived terms

English terms prefixed with auto- (automobile)

Translations

relating to cars or the driving of cars

• Armenian: ավտո- (avto-)
• Bulgarian: авто- (avto-)
• Finnish: auto- (fi)
• French: auto- (fr)
• Greek: αυτο- (el) (afto-)
• Italian: auto- (it)
• Norwegian: auto-
• Polish: auto- (pl), samo- (pl)
• Portuguese: auto- (pt)
• Russian: авто- (ru) (avto-)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ауто-

  Roman: auto-

Derived terms

English terms prefixed with auto-

Anagrams

• aout, outa

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈa]

Prefix

auto-

1. auto- (regarding oneself)
2. auto- (relating to cars)

Derived terms

Catalan terms prefixed with auto-

Further reading

• “auto-” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “auto-”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “auto-” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “auto-” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [au̯to ]

Prefix

auto-

1. auto- (regarding oneself)

   Synonym: sebe-

   ‎auto- + ‎cenzura → ‎autocenzura

Derived terms

Czech terms prefixed with auto-

Further reading

• “auto-”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• auto- I in Slovník afixů užívaných v češtině, 2017
• auto- II in Slovník afixů užívaných v češtině, 2017

Danish

Prefix

auto-

1. self

   autobiografi, autofiktion

2. automatic

   autozoom, autopilot

3. cars

   autoskade, autoværksted

Derived terms

Danish terms prefixed with auto-

Finnish

Etymology

Internationalism (see English auto-), ultimately from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑu̯to-/, [ˈɑ̝u̯t̪o̞-]

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-, self- (regarding oneself)

   Synonyms: oma-, itse-

   autobiografia ― autobiography

   autonomia ― autonomy

   omaelämäkerta ― autobiography

   itsehallinto ― self-governance, autonomy

2. auto- (automatic)

   Synonyms: automaatti-, automaattinen

   autopilotti ― autopilot

   automaattiohjaus ― autopilot

Usage notes

• In Finnish the prefix auto- is chiefly used with loanwords, see usage examples above.

Derived terms

Finnish terms prefixed with auto-

Further reading

• “auto-”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

Anagrams

• auot, outa

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-), from αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /o.tɔ/, /ɔ.tɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Prefix

auto-

1. auto- (regarding oneself)
2. auto- (automatic)
3. auto- (relating to cars)

Usage notes

• Auto- is sometimes added to reflexive verbs in order to stress the reflexiveness of the action. When this is done, the reflexive pronoun is always used as well:

Je m'auto-sabote. ― I sabotage myself. (literally, “I self-sabotage myself.”)

Derived terms

French terms prefixed with auto-

Galician

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-).

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-, self-

Derived terms

From

Galician terms prefixed with auto-

.

Further reading

• “auto-”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

German

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-

Derived terms

German terms prefixed with auto-

Hungarian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɒuto], [ˈɒu̯to]

Prefix

auto-

1. auto- (regarding oneself)
2. auto- (automatic)

Derived terms

Hungarian nouns prefixed with auto-

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch auto-, from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [au̯to]
• Hyphenation: auto

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-: regarding oneself.

Derived terms

Indonesian terms prefixed with auto-

Further reading

• “auto-” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Italian

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Prefix

auto-

1. (highly productive) auto-, self- (regarding oneself; by oneself)
2. (highly productive) auto-, self- (automatic)
3. (mathematics) eigen-
4. (rare) homo- (same)

Derived terms

Italian terms prefixed with auto-

Italian terms prefixed with auto- (self)

Italian terms prefixed with auto- (automatic)

Further reading

• auto-¹ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 2

From auto, automobile.

Prefix

auto-

1. auto- (relating to cars)

Derived terms

Italian terms prefixed with auto- (car)

Further reading

• auto-² in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-

Derived terms

Norwegian Bokmål terms prefixed with auto-

References

• “auto-” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-

Derived terms

Norwegian Nynorsk terms prefixed with auto-

References

• “auto-” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aw.tɔ/

• Audio 1:

  (file)

• Audio 2:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -awtɔ
• Syllabification: [please specify syllabification manually]
• Homophone: auto

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-, as relating to oneself

   Synonym: samo-

   ‎auto- + ‎biografia → ‎autobiografia

2. auto-, automatic

   Synonym: samo-

   ‎auto- + ‎pilot → ‎autopilot

3. auto-, as relating to cars

   Synonym: samo-

   ‎auto- + ‎alarm → ‎autoalarm

Derived terms

Polish terms prefixed with auto-

Further reading

• auto- in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌaw.tu/ [ˌaʊ̯.tu]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌaw.tu/ [ˌaʊ̯.tu]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌaw.to/ [ˌaʊ̯.to]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌaw.tɔ/

Prefix

auto-

1. self-; auto- (done by or directed at oneself)

   ‎auto- + ‎ódio (“hatred”) → ‎auto-ódio (“self-hatred”)

2. auto- (automatic)

   ‎auto- + ‎foco (“foco”) → ‎autofoco (“autofocus”)

3. auto- (relating to automobiles)

   ‎auto- + ‎carro (“car”) → ‎autocarro (“bus”)

4. (Brazil, linear algebra) eigen- (relating to eigenvectors and eigenvalues)

Derived terms

Portuguese terms prefixed with auto-

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-).

Prefix

auto-

1. auto-
2. drive-in

Derived terms

Spanish terms prefixed with auto-

Further reading

• “auto-”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28