: unsolicited usually commercial messages (such as emails, text messages, or Internet postings) sent to a large number of recipients or posted in a large number of places
spammed; spamming
: to send or post spam to
spammed customers with discount offers
spamming a message board
: to send or post spam
The company was accused of spamming via text messages.
spammer
noun
—used for a canned meat product
Examples of spam in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post, 5 Apr. 2024
Any red flags or spam would be an automatic disqualifier.
3.
—Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 3 Apr. 2024
By implementing these new requirements, Google is aiming to prevent malicious actors from using unauthenticated or compromised domains to deliver their dangerous payloads and reduce unwanted spam.
03/27 updates below.
—Davey Winder, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024
Upgrading gets you email and spam protection, parental control, safe banking, and other niceties.
—PCMAG, 26 Mar. 2024
The Stanford study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also found that some of the images have been posted from Facebook pages that were stolen from other people or organizations, including a church in Georgia and a windmill seller, and then repurposed into AI spam pages.
—Angela Yang, NBC News, 19 Mar. 2024
How much of a problem spam and scamming will be across apps is largely unknown until people start using interoperable setups.
—Matt Burgess, WIRED, 6 Feb. 2024
In a research paper and website shared exclusively with WIRED, the researchers show how the AI worm can attack a generative AI email assistant to steal data from emails and send spam messages—breaking some security protections in ChatGPT and Gemini in the process.
—Matt Burgess, WIRED, 1 Mar. 2024
Much like spam emails that appear in the inboxes of anyone with an email address, spam calls can happen to anyone with a phone - cellular or landline.
—USA TODAY, 25 Feb. 2024
Gene Marks, Forbes, 18 Feb. 2024
Thankfully, Swifties have at least a few extra days to spam her onto the top of their personal charts.
—Samantha Chery, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2023
Amateur sleuths took to available satellite imagery and footage of the arcing rockets to spam out lengthy threads detailing why or why not one side was responsible based on factors like whether the impact crater from the blast could or could not be the size seen in the available footage.
—Brian Merchant, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Data scraping is when third parties extract large amounts of information from websites—often to create databases that are then used to generate sales leads, collect insights about consumers or to spam users.
—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 19 July 2023
Musk’s comment also confirmed that the payouts are only for views generated by accounts that have verified handles, claiming that otherwise, bots would simply spam the system, despite reports of bot and spam accounts that have verified accounts.
—Richard Lawler, The Verge, 11 Aug. 2023
But while Twilio had disabled the numbers used to spam Kansas after receiving complaints, the company, like the major phone carriers, doesn’t make a habit of pre-screening texts before they’re sent out.
—Kevin Collier, NBC News, 13 Sep. 2022
In early August, LGBTQ+ Twitch streamers began sharing clips of a growing and frightening phenomenon: hate raids, in which mass bot accounts would spam offensive speech and threats to active streamers in their chats.
—Samantha Puc, refinery29.com, 7 Dec. 2021
Don’t spam your engine with random words.
—Celeste Polanco, Essence, 19 Aug. 2021
Noun
Colman envisions a world where scanning for deepfakes is just a regular part of a computer’s cybersecurity software, in the same way that email applications like Gmail now automatically filter out obvious spam.
—Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post, 5 Apr. 2024
Any red flags or spam would be an automatic disqualifier.
3.
—Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 3 Apr. 2024
By implementing these new requirements, Google is aiming to prevent malicious actors from using unauthenticated or compromised domains to deliver their dangerous payloads and reduce unwanted spam.
03/27 updates below.
—Davey Winder, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024
Upgrading gets you email and spam protection, parental control, safe banking, and other niceties.
—PCMAG, 26 Mar. 2024
The Stanford study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also found that some of the images have been posted from Facebook pages that were stolen from other people or organizations, including a church in Georgia and a windmill seller, and then repurposed into AI spam pages.
—Angela Yang, NBC News, 19 Mar. 2024
How much of a problem spam and scamming will be across apps is largely unknown until people start using interoperable setups.
—Matt Burgess, WIRED, 6 Feb. 2024
In a research paper and website shared exclusively with WIRED, the researchers show how the AI worm can attack a generative AI email assistant to steal data from emails and send spam messages—breaking some security protections in ChatGPT and Gemini in the process.
—Matt Burgess, WIRED, 1 Mar. 2024
Much like spam emails that appear in the inboxes of anyone with an email address, spam calls can happen to anyone with a phone - cellular or landline.
—USA TODAY, 25 Feb. 2024
Verb
And some of those spam messages are blatantly spam too.
—Gene Marks, Forbes, 18 Feb. 2024
Thankfully, Swifties have at least a few extra days to spam her onto the top of their personal charts.
—Samantha Chery, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2023
Amateur sleuths took to available satellite imagery and footage of the arcing rockets to spam out lengthy threads detailing why or why not one side was responsible based on factors like whether the impact crater from the blast could or could not be the size seen in the available footage.
—Brian Merchant, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Data scraping is when third parties extract large amounts of information from websites—often to create databases that are then used to generate sales leads, collect insights about consumers or to spam users.
—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 19 July 2023
Musk’s comment also confirmed that the payouts are only for views generated by accounts that have verified handles, claiming that otherwise, bots would simply spam the system, despite reports of bot and spam accounts that have verified accounts.
—Richard Lawler, The Verge, 11 Aug. 2023
But while Twilio had disabled the numbers used to spam Kansas after receiving complaints, the company, like the major phone carriers, doesn’t make a habit of pre-screening texts before they’re sent out.
—Kevin Collier, NBC News, 13 Sep. 2022
In early August, LGBTQ+ Twitch streamers began sharing clips of a growing and frightening phenomenon: hate raids, in which mass bot accounts would spam offensive speech and threats to active streamers in their chats.
—Samantha Puc, refinery29.com, 7 Dec. 2021
Don’t spam your engine with random words.
—Celeste Polanco, Essence, 19 Aug. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spam.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
from a skit on the British television series Monty Python's Flying Circus in which chanting of the word Spam overrides the other dialogue
First Known Use
Noun
1990, in the meaning defined above
Verb
1994, in the meaning defined at transitive sense
Phrases Containing spam
Dictionary Entries Near spam
Cite this Entry
“Spam.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spam. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
spam
1 of 2 noun
: unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses
spam
2 of 2 verb
: to send spam to
spammer
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on spam
Nglish: Translation of spam for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of spam for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about spam
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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