autological

English

WOTD – 27 January 2008

Etymology

From German autologisch, from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”) + λόγος (lógos, “word”), by surface analysis, autology +‎ -ical.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɔː.təʊˈlɒ.dʒɪ.kəl/, /ˌɔː.təˈlɒ.dʒɪ.kəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɑːtoʊˈlɑːd͡ʒɪkəl/, /ˌɑːtəˈlɑːd͡ʒɪkəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

autological (not comparable)

1. (grammar, of a word, phrase, or especially an adjective) Possessing the property it describes.

   The word polysyllabic is autological, but the word monosyllabic is not.

   Because the word short is in fact short, it is considered autological.

   The word noun is itself a noun, and is thus autological.

Synonyms

• homological

Antonyms

• heterological

Hypernyms

• self-referential

Derived terms

• autologicality
• autologically

Related terms

• autologous
• autonymous

Translations

of a phrase, describing itself

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自逻辑的, 自同的, 自体同源的, 自描述的

• French: autologique (fr)
• German: autologisch
• Hungarian: autologikus, önleíró
• Italian: autologico (it)
• Polish: autologiczny m
• Portuguese: autológico (pt)
• Spanish: autológico m
• Swedish: autologisk (sv)

See also

• self-reference
• Wikipedia:Russell's paradox
• Appendix:English autological terms