chatbot

noun

chat·​bot ˈchat-ˌbät 

plural chatbots

: 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

The challenge is to create a chatbot that can converse coherently and engagingly with humans on popular topics for 20 minutes.

—Marc Saltzman

Examples of chatbot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The apology that raised more questions Grok's apology appeared only after a user prompted the chatbot to write a heartfelt explanation for people lacking context. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 10 Jan. 2026

ChatGPT, a free chatbot anyone could talk to, went viral instantly, hitting 100 million users in two months. —Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 10 Jan. 2026

For more than a week, users have prompted the official Grok reply chatbot to generate sexualized images of nonconsenting people, putting them in more revealing clothing such as swimsuits and underwear. —Kevin Collier, NBC news, 9 Jan. 2026

The paywall implementation follows intense backlash after the chatbot fulfilled requests to digitally remove clothing from photographs without subjects’ consent. —Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 9 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

chat entry 1 + bot entry 1

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

chatbot

noun

chat·​bot ˈchat-ˌbät 

: a bot that is designed to converse with human beings