Self-regulation

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The regulation by a person of their own behaviour without external control, governance, or monitoring. uncountable

    "Near-synonym: willpower"

  2. 2
    The regulation by an organization of its own operation without external control, governance, or monitoring. uncountable

    "Near-synonyms: self-governance; autonomy"

  3. 3
    The regulation by a device or machine of its own operation without external control, governance, or monitoring. uncountable

    "Near-synonym: automation"

Synonyms

All synonyms
;automationautomatismautonomycybernationself-command

Example

More examples

"A half century ago, Maine's famed lobster fishery was also in trouble. But thanks to strict curbs on the size and number and type of lobsters that may be caught, and self-regulation among lobstermen, the Maine lobster industry is now healthy and is expected to remain so."

Etymology

From self- + regulation.

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