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
Popular Science2
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
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
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
Jeff Hecht3
: a computer program or character (as in a game) designed to mimic the actions of a person
variants
or less commonly bott
: the larva of a botfly
especially
: one infesting the horse
1
botanical; botanist; botany
2
bottle
3
bottom
4
bought
Examples of bot in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Rashi Shrivastava, Forbes.com, 3 June 2025
In one instance, the bot claimed Marjorie had to go to a mental health facility.
—Nathan Rousseau Smith, ABC News, 31 May 2025
OpenAI’s leadership had intended for the bot to provide insight into how people would use AI without any particular hope for widespread adoption.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 30 May 2025
Unlike standard bots, NFAs retain context, preferences and goals across interactions.
—Zoltan Istvan, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for bot
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Noun
The aggressive bot scraping activity has pushed some sites to the brink of closing their doors, both by skyrocketing costs thanks to overloading servers and slowing down site functions for legitimate users.
—Rashi Shrivastava, Forbes.com, 3 June 2025
In one instance, the bot claimed Marjorie had to go to a mental health facility.
—Nathan Rousseau Smith, ABC News, 31 May 2025
OpenAI’s leadership had intended for the bot to provide insight into how people would use AI without any particular hope for widespread adoption.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 30 May 2025
Unlike standard bots, NFAs retain context, preferences and goals across interactions.
—Zoltan Istvan, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for bot
Cite this Entry
“Bot.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bot. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
bot
1 of 2 noun
variants
also bott
: the larva of a botfly
especially
: one infesting the horse
bot
2 of 2 abbreviation1
botanical; botanist; botany
2
bottle
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