autonomy.

The ability or right to govern one's own decisions and affairs.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• institutional autonomy
• personal autonomy

On the page

The agreement protects the university's autonomy.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.