Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.
- noun A single piece of such e-mail.
- transitive verb To send unsolicited e-mail to.
- transitive verb To send (a message) indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable, computing, Internet A collection of unsolicited bulk electronic messages.
- noun uncountable, computing, Internet Any
undesired electroniccontent automaticallygenerated forcommercial purposes. - noun countable, rare, computing, Internet An unsolicited electronic message sent in bulk, usually by email or newsgroups.
- noun Alternative form of
SPAM . (tinned meat product) - verb intransitive, computing, Internet To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages.)
- verb transitive, computing, Internet To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages) to a person or entity.
- verb transitive, by extension, video games To
relentlessly attack an enemy with (aspell orability ).
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word spam.
Examples
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A: Send a message to Twitter spam watch team at @spam with the suspicious user name.
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A: Send a message to Twitter spam watch team at @spam with the suspicious user name.
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* a reply to @spam like so: @spam this is a spam account: @bigmoney5 and we'll take care of it.
TechCrunch 2008
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13: 19 RT: @JamesRivers @MariSmith No kidding … just found out best practice is to send spam accounts or fake accounts to @spam when you see them rossgoldberg that's terrible! aren't they going to refund your $? melbournegirl I actually have seen that .. what does that say about me?
Jennie's Palette 2009
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Tailrank was âdesigned with spam prevention in mind. â If Techcrunch was designed with ’spam prevention in mind’ I’m sure you’d have 90% less content
Time To DeadPool TailRank? You Decide. Michael Arrington 2005
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Because the term spam is now so universally accepted to describe unwanted email even Hormel has largely given up on trying to stamp such usage out, it follows that the story of its origins -- complete with the original Monty Python "Spam sketch" -- will live forever in the digital world.
Chris Weigant: From The Pentagon To Monty Python: The Internet Turns 40 Chris Weigant 2010
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Because the term spam is now so universally accepted to describe unwanted email (even Hormel has largely given up on trying to stamp such usage out), it follows that the story of its origins -- complete with the original Monty Python "Spam sketch" -- will live forever in the digital world.
From The Pentagon To Monty Python: The Internet Turns 40 2010
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Because the term spam is now so universally accepted to describe unwanted email (even Hormel has largely given up on trying to stamp such usage out), it follows that the story of its origins -- complete with the original Monty Python "Spam sketch" -- will live forever in the digital world.
Chris Weigant: From The Pentagon To Monty Python: The Internet Turns 40 2010
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Because the term spam is now so universally accepted to describe unwanted email (even Hormel has largely given up on trying to stamp such usage out), it follows that the story of its origins -- complete with the original Monty Python "Spam sketch" -- will live forever in the digital world.
Chris Weigant: From The Pentagon To Monty Python: The Internet Turns 40 2009
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In response to my gripe about campaign spam from the Bush-Cheney Campaign, I received confirmation that apparently campaign spam is bipartisan this go-around:
oroboros commented on the word spam
SPAM luncheon meat, whose name is a portmanteau of "spiced ham" has been unofficially assigned acronyms such as "Specially Processed Assorted Meat" and "Some Parts Are Meat
December 12, 2006
uselessness commented on the word spam
Also a colloquialism for unsolicited e-mail, obnoxious advertisements of all types, and stupid forum posts. This definition was purportedly inspired by this Monty Python skit (Google Video). "Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!"
December 17, 2006
plethora commented on the word spam
When used in regard to unsolicited email etc., the word has been assigned the acronym "Short Pointless Annoying Message".
April 6, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word spam
1783 spam here.
(note: not really)
October 7, 2008
bilby commented on the word spam
Woman maps yam snot and DNA — tons may spam Nam. Ow!
October 18, 2008
reesetee commented on the word spam
"2008 Economic Stimulus Refund - $500,000.00 USD"
Thus reads the subject line of a piece of rather enticing spam I recently received.
December 21, 2008
frogapplause commented on the word spam
Received today. Pretty deep stuff!
Subject line: Does she talk that does not love you?
Inside text: How many do you outlay in a month?
February 5, 2009
bilby commented on the word spam
"We lined up head on to a trio of Navy cooks, who doled out Spam Fritters, Bread, Marge, Jam and Tea and avoided looking at it when they did. We ate on top deck enjoying the sea breeze, the pleasant weather ... were we really going to war or were we on our way to Southend for the day?"
- Spike Milligan, 'Mussolini: My Part In His Downfall.'
April 18, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word spam
Did Milligan feed Mussolini spam fritters as his "part in his downfall"?
April 18, 2009
bilby commented on the word spam
We can only hope.
There are some insights on Italy in this book, Pro, so stay tuned to the list if you are interested to read them. Coming soon :-)
April 18, 2009
skipvia commented on the word spam
Some fun spam comments I've received on one of my blogs recently:
"School is very importance for our children and your blog contain about teacher, I love it. Teacher will be good teach for our child."
"Any good books is very effective to us. I like every type of good books."
May 12, 2009
yarb commented on the word spam
Further discussion (of both types of spam) on bilby's list.
June 13, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word spam
Can anyone here read Arabic and tell whether this is spam, or just happens to feature a domain name? I don't want to make any accusations based on uncertain Google Translate results.
November 25, 2009
uselessness commented on the word spam
Given that alamoudi hasn't made anything but that one list (with nothing on it) and his/her/its profile contains two separate references to that domain, I'm leaning toward spam. I don't speak Arabic but that stuff smells the same in any language.
November 25, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word spam
I think alamoudi meant to add those words in the list description to the list itself.
November 25, 2009
uselessness commented on the word spam
Ah, that could be. Good thinking. :-)
November 25, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word spam
(This doesn't necessarily mean it's not spam, but still...)
November 25, 2009
bilby commented on the word spam
The list title in Arabic is the same domain name. The words in the list description are an odd mish-mash of this and that. I'm not sure what it is.
November 25, 2009
gangerh commented on the word spam
It seems to me that spammers join wordnik and the first thing they do is add a comment to their profile.
(Showing up on Zeitgeist as, for instance, 'on pongsomespammer's profile, pongsomespammer said').
I suspect that genuine wordnik joiners do not do this until after some time and after some other activity , and probably after another wordnik has posted to their profile comments.
If this is indeed true, is there some way of using this fact to immediately filter out these spammers?
January 31, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word spam
I second gangerh's comment of two months ago, but ima also post it on Feedback.
April 12, 2010
jmjarmstrong commented on the word spam
JM has heard it said ‘I’m pink therefore I’m spam’.
August 26, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word spam
The recent New York Times article featuring Wordnik has alerted a wave of SEI spammers to a new venue to post their website address in the form of List names and comments on their usernames. Wordnik does admit, on its Community storefront, to over 80,000 Wordniks. If just one of us bought Ugg(ly) boots or went to a treatment center in Alaska or Alabama, the world would be a better place, right?
January 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word spam
Thanks hernesheir! We're doing an extravigorous spam crackdown and sweep this weekend. :-)
January 6, 2012
nayanlaldas commented on the word spam
error...
search engine optimization service
January 15, 2012
ruzuzu commented on the word spam
This is the first time I've ever wished there were some spam on the community page--I sooooo want to try out the new "Spam?" option.
April 17, 2012
blafferty commented on the word spam
My goodness, the spam is getting knee-deep around here.
December 31, 2013
alexz commented on the word spam
Dear Spammers,
With Wordnik having 18000 actual living twitter followers, you'll get more online traffic by adopting a word instead of spamming random message boards.
May 28, 2015