machinelike

Machinelike is an English adjective describing something that resembles a machine in form or function. It typically connotes precision and repetitiveness, or a lack of spontaneity and warmth. The term can refer to physical movement, procedural systems, or human behavior that appears controlled, automatic, or unsentimental.

Derived from machine plus the suffix -like, machinelike has historical usage dating to the rise of industrialization, when machinery increasingly influenced everyday life. It is often used metaphorically to describe systems, processes, or people that operate with systematic regularity, efficiency, or impersonality similar to a machine.

In contemporary writing, machinelike can carry neutral or evaluative meaning. It may praise efficiency and reliability, or criticize rigidity and dehumanization. In psychology and literary criticism, it is used to depict characters or expressions that seem devoid of affect, or to characterize workflows and technologies that emphasize standardization and faultless repetition.

Examples include: “a machinelike routine” and “the machine's machinelike precision.” The term is related to mechanistic, robotic, and automatic, and is often contrasted with human or spontaneous.

See also mechanization, automation, robotic, mechanical.