Robot Meaning
/ˈɹəʊ̯.bɒt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA system of serfdom used in Central Europe, under which a tenant's rent was paid in forced labour.
nounAn intelligent mechanical being designed to look like a human or other creature, and usually made from metal.
Sentence Examples
It only shows you're not a robot.
How could I be a robot? Robots don't dream.
This is the latest in robot technology.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the factory, a mechanical ____ assembled car parts without any human help.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The factory replaced several assembly line workers with a ____ that could perform the task faster and more accurately.
Word Origin & History
From German Robot, from a West Slavic language, ultimately related to Etymology 2, below.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“I say again, down with the robot!—he is a dog who yields it!”"
— 1849, Littell's Living Age, volume 23, page 309:
"Although the robot varied from region to region, it was rarely less than burdensome."
— 2007, Tim Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory, Penguin, published 2008, page 159:
"Young Rossum invented a worker with a minimum amount of requirements. He had to simplify him. He rejected everything that did not contribute directly to the progress of work—everything that makes man more expensive. In fact, he rejected man and made the Robot. My dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not people. Mechanically they are more perfect than we are, they have an enormously developed intelligence, but they have no soul."
— c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act I, page 17:
"The robots in Dick's novel, loosely adapted by Ridley Scott into the film Blade Runner, were so similar to humans that when they went rogue, trained bounty hunters were called in to perform psychological tests to see whether suspected androids lacked human empathy."
— 2010 January 26, Tom Chivers, Iain McDiarmid, The Telegraph:
"It's painfully slow and complex work which has never been attempted before in these conditions: the small box-shaped robots, equipped with two claws, are operating in almost freezing water 5,000ft below the surface, in pitch black and strong currents."
— 2010 May 16, Tim Webb, “BP fights to stop the Gulf of Mexico spill – and salvage its reputation”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 09 Jun 2021:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
In the factory, a mechanical ____ assembled car parts without any human help.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The factory replaced several assembly line workers with a ____ that could perform the task faster and more accurately.