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

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

The call center typically will retain the golfer’s name, location, email address, cellphone, ZIP Code, payment method, tee-time preferences and history of previous bookings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

The order taker is in a call center in Colorado Springs, more than 900 miles, or 1,450 kilometers, away, connected to the customer and to the workers preparing the food by high-speed data lines.

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