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• Spam
  Spam

  a canned food product consisting especially of pork formed into a solid block.
• spam
  spam

  verb

  to send unsolicited electronic mail or text messages simultaneously to a number of e-mail addresses or mobile phones

Spam

American  

[spam] / spæm /

Trademark.

1. a canned food product consisting especially of pork formed into a solid block.

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noun

1. (lowercase) disruptive online messages, especially commercial messages posted on a computer network or sent as email (often used attributively).

   Install spam blocker software and keep your email spam filters updated to protect your accounts from unsolicited spam.

adjective

1. (lowercase) (of promotional content on the internet) irrelevant or misdirected.

   The search engine delivered spam websites that had nothing to do with my keywords.

verb (used with object)

spammed, spamming

1. (lowercase) to send spam to.

2. (lowercase) to execute (an action) or use (an item) rapidly or repeatedly in a video game.

   Spam the attack button as soon as the fight begins.

verb (used without object)

spammed, spamming

1. (lowercase) to send spam.

Spam ¹ British  

/ spæm /

noun

1. a kind of tinned luncheon meat, made largely from pork

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spam ² British  

/ spæm /

verb

1. to send unsolicited electronic mail or text messages simultaneously to a number of e-mail addresses or mobile phones

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noun

1. unsolicited electronic mail or text messages sent in this way

spam Cultural  

1. Unsolicited, undesired e-mail. Also used as a verb. Spam is the e-mail version of junk mail.

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Discover More

The name comes from a Monty Python comedy skit about a restaurant that served only Spam.

Other Word Forms

• spammer
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of Spam

First recorded in 1937 for the trademarked term; sp(iced) + (h)am ¹; 1990–95 for the other senses, probably referring to a comedy routine on Monty Python's Flying Circus, British TV series, in which the word Spam is used repeatedly

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Explanation

There are few things more annoying than an email inbox full of spam. Spam is unwanted internet advertising that's sent to a huge number of people at a time. In 1937, a canned meat product named Spam was introduced by Hormel Foods, which said that its name was a combination of the words spiced and ham. Later, in a 1970 comedy sketch, the word was used in a silly song, in which the name of the food product was repeated over and over, drowning out the conversation. Not until the early 1990s did the more modern definition of spam come into use, referring to mass-distributed email advertisements under which more important content gets buried. As a verb, to spam is to send such a message.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Spam spam spammed spamming

The food company, which owns Spam and Skippy peanut butter, on Thursday posted a profit of $59.6 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with $183.7 million, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Hormel Foods, the Austin, Minn.-based maker of Spam lunch meat and Skippy peanut butter, named Ash Bhumbla as its next chief financial officer, effective Sept. 8.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

Hormel, which is best known as the parent of the Spam and Planters brands, recently cut its profit outlook amid higher-than-expected costs for meat, as well as nuts.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2025

Dallas-based Sandoitchi is just a few stalls down with a menu of Japanese sandwiches on fluffy white bread, including strawberry with chantilly cream, Spam and eggs, egg salad and chicken katsu.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2025

International Red Cross workers gave us blankets and cans of Spam and sardines.

From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat

Yandex has said the use of its cloud services for "large-scale manipulation on social media, spam and other improper activities" are against its rules and that accounts which violate this are blocked.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

Police said the tip, dated July 18, was flagged as spam and never reached the department's Real-Time Crime Center for vetting.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Instagram’s terms of service prohibit intellectual property violations, spam, illegal content, hate speech, bullying and abuse, self-injury, graphic violence and inappropriate imagery that may include nudity or sexual content.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

Overwhelmed by the spam, RubyGems was forced to shut down new account registrations for four days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

I guess the spam bots don’t know when someone has died.

From "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez

Before the pandemic, Xu remembers being spammed in recruitment group chats with new job postings every spring and fall.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

MP Stephen Mule told local media that his phone was spammed with more than 30,000 messages from young Kenyans asking him to reject the bill.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2024

They are being spammed with it,” she says.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 23, 2024

One Paris-based manager of a debt fund that held Credit Suisse AT1s said he had been "spammed" with emails from lawyers.

From Reuters ● Mar. 23, 2023

“And my cousin Molly. She spammed me with quotes for a week straight.”

From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli

People with names like the other six accused also complained about rage spamming and threats.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

The company has reached out to the institutions affected, he added, saying the broader review, including lower-severity incidents like “ agents spamming websites” will take months.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

There is, however, one promising trend: Consumers who are sick of this paid spamming are taking it to court.

From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2026

"My followers began spamming 'return the moai' on Wikipedia, and then the comments section of the British Museum Instagram was full of people posting 'return the moai'," he said in one recent clip.

From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2024

The illiterate message can send itself automatically, as image or as speech, as video or as Internet spamming, whatever best hits its human target, to people's addresses.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin

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