From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishautonomyau‧ton‧o‧my /ɔːˈtɒnəmi $ ɒːˈtɑː-/ ●○○ noun [uncountable] 1 PGINDEPENDENT COUNTRY OR ORGANIZATIONfreedom that a place or an organization has to govern or control itself SYN independence campaigners who want greater autonomy for Corsica2 INDEPENDENT PERSONthe ability or opportunity to make your own decisions without being controlled by anyone else SYN independence Teachers are given considerable individual autonomy.
Examples from the Corpus
autonomy• To what degree is that positive cycle of challenge and autonomy happening for you in your work now?• Maybe I made a mistake in creating a rigid opposition between marriage and autonomy.• Being in employment had given these women personal confidence, a sense of independence, autonomy and pride.• These changes have created conflicts and tensions such as between old and new technological trajectories and between national autonomy and international co-operation.• It means simply freedom from coercion by others and it is achieved when a sphere of private autonomy is created.• First, the relative autonomy of railway management means that the assessment of its performance by outside authorities is problematic.• the autonomy of the individual• However, a consequence of this autonomy is their responsibility for seeing that housework gets done. 