spam
/spæm/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/spam/
spam noun: unsolicited bulk electronic messages. Also the ellipsis of spam account.
Noun
spam (countable and uncountable, plural spams)
- Unsolicited bulk electronic messages.
- I get far too much spam.
- I received 58 spams yesterday.
- Any undesired electronic content automatically generated for commercial purposes.
- An Act to provide for the control of spam, which is unsolicited commercial communications sent in bulk by electronic mail or by text or multi-media messaging to mobile telephone numbers, and to provide for matters connected therewith.Long title, Spam Control Act (Cap. 311A, R. Ed. 2008)
- Excessive, often unwanted and repeated online messages.
- A large quantity or multitude of anything done repetitively or considered unusually or indiscriminately repetitive.
- A type of tinned meat made mainly from ham.
Verb
spam (third-person singular simple present spams, present participle spamming, simple past and past participle spammed)
- To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages.)
- Transformed by programming ineptitude into a monster of Frankenstein proportions, it broke loose on the night of March 31, 1993 and proceeded to spam news.admin.policy with something on the order of 200 messages in which it attempted, and failed, to cancel its own messages.1993 March 31, Joel Furr, “ARMM: ARMM: >>>>Ad Infinitum”, in alt.folklore.computers (Usenet), message-ID <d5SlxvmhmNwJ>
- To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages) to a person or entity.
- To send messages repeatedly, often with disruptive effect; to flood.
- To do something rapidly and repeatedly.
- Stop spamming that special attack!
- Spam the Z key to get a speed boost.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: SPAM
SPAM
- Alternative form of spam (“tinned meat product”).
- During World War II, of course, I ate my share of SPAM along with millions of other soldiers.1966 June 29, Dwight D Eisenhower, Letter to Hormel Foods dated 29 June 1966
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Spam
Spam
- Alternative form of spam (tinned meat product)
Also used as
spam is also the ellipsis of spam account.
spam meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
spam in Hindi
- unsolicited bulk electronic messages
- स्पैम spaim
spam in Tamil
- ஸ்பேம், ஸ்பாம், ஸ்பேமை
spam in Marathi
- unsolicited bulk electronic messages
- स्पॅम spĕm
- tinned meat
- स्पॅम spĕm
spam in Urdu
- سپیم, اسپیم, اسپام
More languagesFewer languages
- spam in Bengali
- স্প্যাম, স্প্যাম্, স্প্যাম করতে
- spam in Telugu
- స్పామ్, స్పాం, స్పామ్ చేయడానికి
- spam in Malayalam
- സ്പാം, സ്പാമിലേക്ക്, സ്പാം ചെയ്യാൻ
- spam in Kannada
- ಸ್ಪ್ಯಾಮ್, ಸ್ಪಾಮ್, ಸ್ಪ್ಯಾಮ್ ಮಾಡಲು
- spam in Punjabi
- ਸਪੈਮ, ਸਪੈਮ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- spam in Gujarati
- સ્પામ, સ્પેમ, સ્પૅમ
- spam in Odia
- ସ୍ପାମ୍, ସ୍ପାମ
- spam in Nepali
- स्प्याम, स्पाम, स्प्याममा
- spam in Arabic
- بَيَانٌ مُزْعِج bayānun muzʕij, سُخَام suḵām
- spam in Thai
- สแปม s̄pæm
- spam in Vietnamese
- thư rác
Examples of spam in a sentence
- One way of fighting spam is to use a blackhole list maintained on a blackhole server.
- Oh chuff off! I'm so chuffing fed up with all of the spam posts on my timeline.
- You can expect a flaming if you post irrelevant spam to a newsgroup.
Synonyms of spam
Antonyms
Forms of spam
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | spams |
| alternative form | Spam |
| alternative form | SPAM |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | spams |
| present participle | spamming |
| past participle | spammed |
| past | spammed |
Origin of spam
The original sense (canned ham) is a proprietary name registered by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in U.S., 1937. It is presumed to be a conflation of either "spiced ham" or "shoulder of pork and ham" but was soon extended to other kinds of canned meat. Hormel spells the trademarked name in all upper case. The use for unsolicited and unwanted email derives from a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch. In the 1970 sketch, a group of Vikings in a restaurant repeatedly chant the word "spam". The earliest recorded real-life use for this sense occurs around 1993 which finds reference in a newsgroup post dated March 31, 1993, but the term may have been in use on "Multi-User Dungeons" (MUDs) in the 1980s.
Words formed from spam
- antispam
- antispammer
- blam
- despam
- ghost spam
- hailstorm spam
- nonspam
- picspam
- referral spam
- snowshoe spam
- spamblock
- spamblog
- spambot
- spamdexing
- spamference
- spamfic
- spam in a can
- spamless
- spamlike
- spammage
- spammation
- spammer
- spamming
- spammish
- spammy
- spamouflage
- spamproof
- spamsilog
- spamtard
- spamtrap
- spamvertise
- spamvertisement
- spamvertiser
- spamvertising
- spamvertizement
- spamwich
- spim
- sping
- splog
- spoetry
- sporgery
- unspam
- webspam
- spammable
- unspammable
- unspammed
Phrases with spam
- log spam
- link spam
- mass spam
- spam relay
- social spam
- spam killer
- spam musubi
- spam relays
- spam account
- spam killers
- spam musubis
- referrer spam
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with spam
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about spam
- What does spam mean?
- Spam means unsolicited bulk electronic messages.
- What is spam in Hindi?
- Spam in Hindi is स्पैम (spaim). See Spam meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is spam?
- Spam can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce spam?
- Spam is pronounced /spæm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of spam?
- The plural of spam is spams.
Words near spam in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spam (page history and authors); SPAM (page history and authors); Spam (page history and authors); spam (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spam (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spam.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Spam.wav.
Cite this entry: “spam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.