humanoid

Other forms: humanoids

Something that's humanoid looks or acts like a real, live human being — but it's not. A humanoid robot is one that's designed to resemble a person.

Anthropologists coined the word humanoid in the 19th century, adding the suffix -oid, or "like," to human. Scientists once used it to talk about humanlike traits in non-human organisms, but today it nearly always describes an automaton or robot. In the Star Wars universe, droids like C-3PO are humanoid, while R2-D2, who doesn’t have arms and legs or a recognizable face, is not.