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

The bot now has to embark on a mission to find all the pieces. —Nick Romano, EW.com, 30 May 2024

What benefits from this partnership are accruing to students and faculty and everybody else at Arizona State? Don't think of AI as the Terminator bots that are going to come in and kill everyone. —Sean Gregory, TIME, 26 May 2024

The company said the site was overwhelmed by both fans and attacks from bots, which were posing as consumers to scoop up tickets and sell them on secondary sites. —Alanna Durkin Richer and Wyatte Grantham-Philips, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 May 2024

But Google and others are convinced the next generation of bots is really going to work. —David Pierce, The Verge, 14 May 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