call center

American  

[kawl sen-ter] / ˈkɔl ˌsɛn tər /

noun

call centers plural

1. an office or department that makes and receives a high volume of phone calls for an enterprise, as outbound sales and telemarketing calls or inbound customer service and technical support calls.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• call centers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of call center

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

call center

In March 2025, the company announced a partnership with Nvidia to accelerate the development of AI technologies to drive efficiency in drive-through ordering and call center operations as well as to assess restaurant performance.

From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026

Both are large workforces, roughly comparable in size, though truck drivers are disproportionately men and call center workers disproportionately women—and as you'd guess, truck drivers earn substantially more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

You can only book it by calling a call center.

From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2026

My mom worked a number of service jobs over the course of her life, whether it was as a baker or a florist at a grocery store or working at a customer call center.

From Salon ● Apr. 27, 2026

While filming the documentary about outsourcing, the TV crew and I spent an evening at the Indian-owned “24/7 Customer” call center in Bangalore.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman