autoresponder

noun

au·​to·​re·​spond·​er ˌȯ-tō-ri-ˈspän-dər 

variants or auto-responder or less commonly auto responder

plural autoresponders or auto-responders also auto responders

: a software feature that automatically sends a response to incoming messages (such as emails)

… it has an email autoresponder that you can use to send follow-up emails to customers after they have made a purchase.

—Angela Scott-Briggs

The auto responder is a company's introduction to potential clients and customers. It sends … informational messages to site registrants. It delivers reminders about products and services.

—Mitch Tuch

Think about a short message—conveyed on voice mail and on email and SMS auto-responders—that says something like: "As you can imagine, I'm very busy at the moment. …"

—Kwame Anthony Appiah

also : a response sent by an autoresponder : auto-response

"One of the most important things that I do before I go on vacation to keep me from being overwhelmed after is I put up an autoresponder that is a little bit more detailed than 'Hey, I'm out of the office from this day to this day.' …"

—Anna Dearmon Kornick, quoted in HuffPost

An SMS autoresponder … is an automated message that is sent to customers. The message is triggered when a customer sends a text to the business.

—PRWeb Newswire

"If you want weekends off, you can write an auto-responder that says, 'I'm away from my e-mail until Monday morning. If this is an emergency, please call me on my cell,'" suggests [Sherry] Turkle.

—Liz Welch

Examples of autoresponder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Signpost it in your vacation post and autoresponder. —Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025

For example, an email autoresponder is a tool that most small business owners recognize as valuable for warming up leads and increasing engagement, yet many do not implement it. —Ethan Stone, USA Today, 28 Mar. 2025

Make an email autoresponder, book a dream trip, and empower a team member to get things off your plate. —Jodie Cook, Forbes, 14 Jan. 2025

Lauren Goode: Boone wrote back to my autoresponder the other day. —Michael Calore, WIRED, 17 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

auto- + responder

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for autoresponder

• condor
• fonder
• launder
• mandir
• maunder
• ponder
• squander
• wander
• yonder
• responder
• transponder