bot

1 of 3

noun (1)

ˈbät 

1

: robot

Bennett's referring to … a new police robot. It looks similar to the Albuquerque Bomb Squad robot next to it—both have cameras, an articulated arm, a mechanical gripper, and tank-like treads. But Benett's bot is different; it has brains.

—Popular Science

2

a

: a computer program that performs automatic repetitive tasks : agent sense 5

Several shopping "bots" will track down prices for on-line merchandise from a variety of vendors.

—Sam Vincent Meddis

especially : one designed to perform a malicious action

These bot programs churn away all day and night, prodding at millions of random IP addresses looking for holes to crawl through.

—Jennifer Tanaka

b

: a computer that has been infected with a bot and can be used for malicious purposes as part of a network of infected computers

These proxies then sent instructions to worker bots in set patterns, including templates for spam creation.

—Jeff Hecht

3

: a computer program or character (as in a game) designed to mimic the actions of a person

bot

2 of 3

noun (2)

variants or less commonly bott

: the larva of a botfly

especially : one infesting the horse

bot

3 of 3

abbreviation

1

botanical; botanist; botany

2

bottle

3

bottom

4

bought

Examples of bot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

But new footage of the bots dribbling, defending, and shooting goals shows off just how good a coach deep reinforcement learning could be for humanoid machines. —Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 10 Apr. 2024

Multiple other artists and managers interviewed for this article have been the target of multiple bot attacks, which generated massive amounts of artificial streams and fake followers. —Ari Herstand, Variety, 9 Apr. 2024

The report says that the bot doesn’t return the same responses each time it’s asked a question. —Emily Price, PCMAG, 31 Mar. 2024

But the technology powering Claude and competitors’ bots is a more powerful tool known as a large language model, which is trained on massive swaths of the internet in order to generate text, such as an answer to a question or a poem. —Matt Day, Fortune, 28 Mar. 2024

The media startup has two AI tools in use — an internal editing bot and MISO. —Jackie Snow, Quartz, 28 Mar. 2024

Developments such as Tesla’s humanoid Optimus bots signal a future where robots can handle intricate tasks, a trend likely to evolve and expand further in manufacturing. —Expert Panel®, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024

Though the robotic smart display is much further along than the mobile bot, it has been added and removed from the company’s product road map over the years, according to the people. —Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2024

Since his takeover of the platform, the presence of spammy bots on the platform has been a near-constant source of controversy. —Kat Tenbarge, NBC News, 4 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

by shortening

Noun (2)

Middle English; akin to Dutch leverbot liver fluke

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1969, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

bot

1 of 2 noun

ˈbät

: the larva of a botfly

bot

2 of 2 noun

1

: robot

2

: a computer program that performs automatic, repetitive, and sometimes harmful tasks

3

: a computer program or character that mimics human actions

Medical Definition

bot

1 of 2 noun

variants also bott

ˈbät 

: the larva of a botfly

especially : one infesting the horse

bot

2 of 2 abbreviation

1

botanical; botanist; botany

2

bottle