From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Autonomy \Au*ton"o*my\, noun [Gr. ?: cf. F. autonomie. See {Autonomous}.]
1. The power or right of self-government; self-government, or political independence, of a city or a state.
2. (Metaph.) The sovereignty of reason in the sphere of morals; or man's power, as possessed of reason, to give law to himself. In this, according to Kant, consist the true nature and only possible proof of liberty. --Fleming.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence [syn: {liberty}]
2: personal independence [syn: {self-direction}, {self-reliance}, {self-sufficiency}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
80 Moby Thesaurus words for "autonomy": Declaration of Independence, absolute monarchy, aristocracy, autarchy, autarky, autocracy, autonomousness, coalition government, colonialism, commonwealth, constitutional government, constitutional monarchy, democracy, dictatorship, dominion rule, duarchy, duumvirate, dyarchy, federal government, federation, feudal system, free will, garrison state, gerontocracy, gratuitousness, heteronomy, hierarchy, hierocracy, home rule, independence, individualism, inner-direction, limited monarchy, martial law, meritocracy, militarism, military government, mob rule, mobocracy, monarchy, neocolonialism, ochlocracy, oligarchy, pantisocracy, patriarchate, patriarchy, police state, pure democracy, regency, representative democracy, representative government, republic, rugged individualism, self-action, self-activity, self-containment, self-determination, self-direction, self-government, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, social democracy, spontaneity, spontaneousness, stratocracy, technocracy, thearchy, theocracy, totalitarian government, totalitarian regime, triarchy, triumvirate, tyranny, unforcedness, voluntariness, voluntarism, voluntaryism, volunteer, volunteering, welfare state
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