Au-tŏn'o-my, n.

n. [Gr. αὐτονομία, Fr. autonomie. See supra.]

1. The power or right of self-government, whether in a city which elects its own magistrates, and makes its own laws, or in an individual who lives according to his own will. [Rare.]
2. (Phil.) 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.