call center

American

[kawl sen-ter] / ˈkɔl ˌsɛn tər /

noun

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.

Etymology

Origin of call center

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

Dealing with a call center or an automated teller might have been exasperating.

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

Most of the people you encounter on the phone from a call center would likely not be.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 30, 2026

The Federal Communications Commission advanced a plan to bring outsourced call center jobs back to the U.S., voting Thursday to open the proposal to public comments and paving the way to adoption later this year.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026

When you look around at 24/7’s call center, you see that all the computers are running Microsoft Windows.

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023