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cyborg

cyborgs

An organism that is partly mechanical and partly biological is a cyborg. The Star Wars character Darth Vader is a good example of a cyborg: he's a person whose body has been improved through technology. He's mainly, but not entirely, human.

The term cyborg was coined in 1960, from cybernetic and organism, and since then it's mainly been used in fiction and as a theoretical concept. The meaning of this word has changed over time as science fiction ideas (from virtual reality to artificial heart valves) increasingly become real. Some people think that individuals using any kind of internal medical device, from pacemakers to cochlear implants, could technically be classified as cyborgs.

Definitions of cyborg
  1. noun
    a human being whose body has been taken over in whole or in part by electromechanical devices
    “a cyborg is a cybernetic organism”
    synonyms: bionic man, bionic woman
    see moresee less
    type of:
    machine
    an efficient person
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘cyborg'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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