bot

¹ American  

[bot] / bɒt /

noun

1. Digital Technology. a software program that can execute commands, reply to messages, or perform routine tasks, as online searches, either automatically or with minimal human intervention (often used in combination): a customer service chatbot to answer product questions.

   a social media bot retweeting certain posts;

   a customer service chatbot to answer product questions.

2. Informal. a robot.

---

bot ² American  

[bot] / bɒt /

Or bott

noun

1. the larva of a botfly.

---

bot ³ American  

[bot] / bɒt /

noun

Australian Slang.

1. a person who cadges; scrounger.

---

bot. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. botanical.

2. botanist.

3. botany.

4. bottle.

---

B.O.T. ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. Board of Trade.

---

bot ¹ British  

/ bɒt /

verb

1. to scrounge or borrow

2. to scrounge (from); impose (on)

---

noun

1. a scrounger

2. wanting to scrounge

   he's on the bot for a cigarette

bot. ² British  

abbreviation

1. botanical

2. botany

---

bot ³ British  

/ bɒt /

noun

1. computing an autonomous computer program that performs time-consuming tasks, esp on the internet

---

bot ⁴ British  

/ bɒt /

noun

1. the larva of a botfly, which typically develops inside the body of a horse, sheep, or man

2. any similar larva

3. informal a mild illness in humans

---

BOT ⁵ British  

abbreviation

1. Board of Trade

---

bot Scientific  

/ bŏt /

1. A software program that imitates the behavior of a human, as by querying search engines or participating in chatroom discussions.

---

Etymology

Origin of bot¹

First recorded in 1985–90; bot ¹ def. 2 first recorded in 1965–70; shortening of robot

Origin of bot²

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English; akin to Dutch bot, Frisian dialect botten (plural); further origin unknown

Origin of bot³

First recorded in 1915–20; perhaps shortening of botfly

Example Sentences

Other startups have shared in Silicon Valley’s enthusiasm for OpenClaw and independent AI bots, but only up to a certain point.

From The Wall Street Journal

Giving a bot a long list of instructions will be easier than keeping track of whether it followed through correctly.

From The Wall Street Journal

Amazon has suffered a spate of outages, some of them lasting hours, since it began entrusting more software coding responsibilities to AI bots while laying off human engineers, according to the Financial Times.

From Los Angeles Times

Today’s humanoid bots can barely load a dishwasher.

From The Wall Street Journal

Their cameras, sensors and bots do the work that 60,000 security guards once did.

From BBC