adj ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Having the impersonal and automatic characteristics of a machine.
2. 2
   Predetermined by, or as if by, a mechanism.
3. 3
   Having a physical or biological cause.

   "Such ateleological explanation is what is meant by mechanistic explanation in the broad sense."

Adjective

1. 1
   explained in terms of physical forces wordnet
2. 2
   of or relating to the philosophical theory of mechanism wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

mechanicalaeromechanicalanimistanimisticatomisticbiomechanical

Example

More examples

"Such ateleological explanation is what is meant by mechanistic explanation in the broad sense."

Etymology

From mechan(ism) + -istic.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.