chatbot

noun

chat·​bot ˈchat-ˌbät 

variants or less commonly chat bot

plural chatbots also chat bots

: a bot (see bot entry 1 sense 3) that is designed to converse with human beings

Chatbots … have been around for years, mostly to answer generic questions over the phone or on a website.

—Dalvin Brown

When AI chatbots use human-like language, people naturally respond to them as thinking, feeling, social beings.

—Mike Elgan

People are offloading all kinds of tasks to chat bots to "save time" and "maximize productivity."

—Jen Zoratti

Examples of chatbot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Professional psychologists have cautioned the public against using unlicensed AI chatbots as therapists. — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 22 Oct. 2026

Banking, e-commerce, geolocation and ride-hailing services, as well as Alisa, Yandex’s virtual assistant, and multimodal AI chatbots all have suffered lasting disruptions. — ABC News, 22 Oct. 2026

While a chatbot’s role may end with the interaction, a transactional financial system typically needs to preserve its process logic as information moves to the next stage. — Ethan Stone, Sacbee.com, 22 Oct. 2026

An example is Shopee, a Southeast Asian e-commerce platform, which now handles approximately 80% of customer queries through AI chatbots, helping cut its cost per customer contact by 30% year on year. — Jenny Lee, CNBC, 22 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

chat entry 1 + bot entry 1

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for chatbot

• acknow
• aglow
• ago
• airglow
• aloe
• altho
• although
• ammo
• backflow
• backhoe
• banjo
• barbeau

Kids Definition

chatbot

noun

chat·​bot ˈchat-ˌbät 

: a bot that is designed to converse with human beings