robocall

noun

ro·​bo·​call ˈrō-bō-ˌkȯl 

: a telephone call from an automated source that delivers a prerecorded message to a large number of people

robocall transitive verb

robocalled; robocalling; robocalls

Poor small-town America. During the last gasps of this fevered election, pollsters, zealous campaign foot soldiers and reporters are kicking down its doors, figuratively speaking, robocalling its citizens during suppertime …

—Doug Colligan

robocaller noun

plural robocallers

Now the only people who use the telephone are campaign robocallers and the phone company, dunning me to switch to their new wireless plan.

—Richard Brookhiser

robocalling noun

Business organizations have warned that legislative action against robocalling that defines the practice too broadly could prevent legitimate businesses from efficiently reaching their customers with relevant information.

—Colin A. Young

Examples of robocall in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Ask about tools that block ringless voicemail or robocalls. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 14 May 2026

Those John Does operate large-scale robocall and telemarketing campaigns that misuse trademarks for Capital One or its subsidiary Discover, according to the lawsuit. —Stephanie Dhue, CNBC, 13 May 2026

Elected officials say an Orland Park resident recently charged with threatening and intimidating them was behind campaigns of robocalls and other communications that targeted them and their families. —Olivia Stevens, Chicago Tribune, 2 Apr. 2026

Consumer tools such as spell-check, calculators, spreadsheets, robocall filtering and large language models, such as ChatGPT, would not be affected. —Nick Coltrain, Denver Post, 18 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

robot + -o- + call entry 2

First Known Use

1993, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for robocall

• aerosol
• alcohol
• arbitral
• basketball
• butanol
• cannonball
• carbinol
• cortisol
• ethanol
• fireball
• gasohol
• gossypol