Skip to content
OneKitly

auto

adjectivenounnounverbnounnouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈɔːtəʊ//
  • United Kingdom/[ˈɔː.tʰəʊ̯]/
  • //ˈɔ.toʊ̯//
  • /[ˈɔ.tʰoʊ̯]/

A setting for automatic operation.

adjective

  1. 1

    Variant of automaticClipping of automatic (of a gearbox/transmission).

    It's an auto sedan which we picked up from a wholesaler locally.

    For the first eight years of the Tetris Championship Series, the eventual victor used a technique known as delayed auto shift, or "DAS."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Graeco-Phrygian *auto- Proto-Hellenic *autós Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder. Ancient Greek αὖ (aû) Ancient Greek τόν (tón) Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós) Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-) Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *mn̥tós Proto-Hellenic *mətós Ancient Greek αὐτόμᾰτος (autómătos) Ancient Greek αὐτόμᾰτον (autómăton)der. Classical Latin automatum New Latin automaticusbor. English automaticclip. English auto Clipping of automatic.

noun

  1. 1

    A setting for automatic operation.

    Put it on auto.

  2. 2

    An automatic gearbox/transmission.

    A body-coloured centre pillar signalled the arrival of an electronic four-speed auto, slight suspension revisions and minor trim changes.

  3. 3

    A car with an automatic gearbox/transmission.

    It wasn't too bad but we did hire an auto (couldn't imagine changing gears with my right hand).

noun

  1. 1

    Variant of automobileClipping of automobile.

    My brother is an auto mechanic. He can get me a discount on auto parts.

    In 1909, his grandfather was the first farmer in the county to buy an auto.

    “There were golden years for GM in China, but those are over, and they’ll never have a comeback story,” said Michael Dunne, an auto industry consultant who has been involved in Western automakers’ efforts in China since the 1990s, including GM’s entry into the market.

    “We spoke with the Big Three auto dealers. We are going to give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA,” President Donald Trump said in a statement read by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at a press briefing Wednesday. Those dealers included Stellantis, Ford and General Motors.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Graeco-Phrygian *auto- Proto-Hellenic *autós Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder. Ancient Greek αὖ (aû) Ancient Greek τόν (tón) Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós) Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-)lbor. French auto- Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *m(y)owh₁éyeti Proto-Italic *moweō Latin moveō Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlomder. Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin mōbilislbor. French mobile French automobilebor. English automobileclip. English auto Clipping of automobile.

verb

  1. 1

    datedTo travel by automobile.

    The food was excellent and well served, and it recalled the Norman cities he had autoed to.

    Christmas Day we decided to spend in snow, in order to feel more at home, and so we autoed up 5000 ft. to Peira Cava and reveled in the winter sports, autoing back to the roses and “summer time” at nightfall.

noun

  1. 1

    An autorickshaw.

    Users are often unable to note down the number of the taxi or the auto as the driver will just zoom past.

Etymology

Clipping of autorickshaw.

noun

  1. 1

    A genre of dramatic literature.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish auto.

Forms

plural
autos
past tense
autoed
past participle
autoed
present participle
autoing
third person singular
autos
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).