An android is a variation on the idea of a robot. Androids are essentially robots that are intended to look as human-like as possible, including the ability to display emotions, whereas a robot -- according to Isaac Asimov, the man who coined the term robotics and first wrote extensively about them in his Robot novels -- is merely human-shaped. Asimov himself never refers to his humanoid robots as androids.

An"droid (#), An*droi"des (#), n. [Gr. of man's form; , , man + form.]

A machine or automaton in the form of a human being.

© Webster 1913.

An"droid, a.

Resembling a man.

© Webster 1913.