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Robot vs Mecha - What's the difference?

robot | mecha |

As nouns the difference between robot and mecha

is that robot is a machine built to carry out some complex task or group of tasks, especially one which can be programmed while mecha is a large armoured robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside.

robot

English

(wikipedia robot)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A machine built to carry out some complex task or group of tasks, especially one which can be programmed.
  • * 2010 , Tim Webb, The Guardian , 16 May 2010:
    • It's painfully slow and complex work which has never been attempted before in these conditions: the small box-shaped robots , equipped with two claws, are operating in almost freezing water 5,000ft below the surface, in pitch black and strong currents.
  • (chiefly, science fiction) An intelligent mechanical being designed to look like a human or other creature, and usually made from metal.
  • * 2010 , Tom Chivers and Iain McDiarmid, The Telegraph , 26 Jan 2010:
    • The robots in Dick's novel, loosely adapted by Ridley Scott into the film Blade Runner, were so similar to humans that when they went rogue, trained bounty hunters were called in to perform psychological tests to see whether suspected androids lacked human empathy.
  • (figuratively) A person who does not seem to have any emotions.
  • * Murray N. Rothbard, Making Economic Sense (page xiv)
    • Yet surely he was a humorless robot of a man, spewing forth lonely and bitter critiques of all those lesser mortals with whom he could not identify.
  • (South Africa) A traffic light (from earlier robot policeman ).
  • (surveying) A theodolite which follows the movements of a prism and can be used by a one-man crew.
  • A style of dance popular in disco whereby the dancer impersonates the movement of a robot

    • Synonyms

    * See

    Hypernyms

    * automaton

    Hyponyms

    * android

    Derived terms

    * bot * -bot * robotic * robotics * robo-

    See also

    * artificial intelligence * computer * cyborg * domotics * pedipulator * robot revolution South African English English terms derived from fiction ----

    mecha

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (anime, manga) A large armoured robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside.
  • * 1997 , Helen McCarthy, The anime movie guide
    • Having deprived her of both her mecha and her lover, Masato looks set for a nasty end, but Miku arrives to save him.
  • * 2002 , Christopher Hart, Anime mania: how to draw characters for Japanese animation
    • A transformation occurs when a mecha character, vehicle, or weapon unfolds and reassembles itself in a totally new form.
  • * 2006 , Dani Cavallaro, The animé art of Hayao Miyazaki
    • Porco Rosso evinces a deep fascination with mechanical objects of all sorts but it is by no means a mecha movie...
  • * 2007 , Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire
    • Each week the good guys fight the bad guys and vanquish them in a mecha battle, only to have the bad guys reappear intact the following week.
  • * 2007 , Robin E. Brenner, Understanding manga and anime (page 170)
  • * 2011 , Kensuke Okabayashi, Manga For Dummies (page 275)
    • In this section, I show you mechas that are large enough to be piloted by humans from the inside. Although most of them are designed for combat, some function as transportation or construction mechas.

    Anagrams

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