In many stories, such as Patlabor, mecha are also used for civilian purposes such as heavy construction work, police functions, or firefighting. An equal number of stories treat mecha as a proxy for super heroes, with mecha being the super-heroic form(s) of the protagonist(s), or the ultimate level of power for characters who are already super heroes. In many science fiction stories in which they appear, mecha are war machines: essentially armored fighting vehicles with legs instead of treads or wheels. In the Japanese stories themselves, they are seldom referred to as 'Mecha'. 'Mech' as a term originated from BattleTech (where it is often written as 'Mech, short for BattleMech or OmniMech), and is not used in Japan in other contexts except as an unintentional misspelling of 'mecha.' (One exception is the Japanese version of BattleTech, which attempts to retain the English word.) In Japanese, 'robot' is the more frequent term. The term 'mech' is used to describe such vehicles considerably more often in Western entertainment than in Asian entertainment. English speakers have repurposed the term 'mecha' to mean only these vehicles. The Japanese use the term 'robot' (ロボット, 'robotto') or 'giant robots' to distinguish limbed vehicles from other mechanical devices. In Japanese, 'mecha' encompasses all mechanical objects, including cars, guns, computers, and other devices.

The term 'mecha' is derived from the Japanese abbreviation meka (メカ, meka?) for the English word 'mechanical'. Much like art or pornography, one knows it when one sees it. There is some debate as to what qualifies as mecha and what doesn't. Mecha are commonly bipedal, although they come in a dizzying variety of shapes and sizes. They are usually-but not always-large, humanoid vehicles controlled by a pilot. Mecha, also known as meka, mechs or giant robots, are limbed machines.

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