bot

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɒt/
• (US) enPR: bŏt, IPA^(key): /bɑt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Homophone: bought (cot–caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɒt

Possibly a modification of Scottish Gaelic boiteag (“maggot”).

• bott

bot (plural bots)

1. The larva of a botfly, which infests the skin of various mammals, producing warbles, or the nasal passage of sheep, or the stomach of horses.
   • 1946, Canadian Journal of Research: Zoological Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, page 76:

     One deer, later found to be heavily parasitized by bots, suffered severe vomiting attacks during the early spring.

   • 1984, Adrian Forsyth, Kenneth Miyata, Tropical Nature, page 157:

     Jerry prepared a glass jar with sterilized sand to act as a nursery for his pulsating bot, but despite his tender ministrations the larva dried out and died before it could encase itself in a pupal sheath.

• rodent bot

From bottom.

bot (third-person singular simple present bots, present participle botting, simple past and past participle botted)

1. (British, slang) To bugger.
2. (Australia, informal) To ask for and be given something with the direct intention of exploiting the thing’s usefulness, almost exclusively with cigarettes.

   Synonym: (UK) bum

   Can I bot a smoke?

   Jonny always bots off me. I just wish he’d get his own pack.

Clipping of robot.

• 'bot

bot (plural bots)

1. (science fiction, informal) A physical robot.
   • 1998, David G. Hartwell, editor, Year's best SF 3, page 130:

     I stared at the bot and recognized her for the first time. She was me.

   • 2005, Greg Bear, Quantico‎^[1], page 71:

     As he guided the bot, Andrews reminisced about his younger days in Wyoming, when he had witnessed a mishandled load of wheat puff out a dusty fog.

   • 2007, Peter F. Hamilton, The Dreaming Void‎^[2]:

     The bot juddered to a halt, as the whole lower segment of its power arm darkened.

2. (computing) A piece of software designed to perform a minor but repetitive task automatically or on command, especially when operating with the appearance of a (human) user profile or account.
   • 2009, Ryan Farley, Xinyuan Wang, “Roving Bugnet: Distributed Surveillance Threat and Mitigation”, in Dimitris Gritzalis, Javier López, editors, Emerging Challenges for Security, Privacy and Trust: 24th IFIP TC 11 International Information Security Conference‎^[3], page 42:

     The goals of IRC bots vary widely, such as automatically kicking other users off or more nefarious things like spamming other IRC users. In this paper, a free standing IRC bot is presented that monitors an IRC channel for commands from a particular user and responds accordingly.

   • 2009, Richard K. Neumann, Legal Reasoning and Legal Writing: Structure, Strategy, and Style‎^[4], page 91:

     He is particularly good at creating web robots, which are also called bots. A bot is software that searches for certain kinds of websites and then automatically does something — good or bad — on each site. Google uses bots to search and index websites.

   • 2010, Dusty Reagan, Twitter Application Development For Dummies‎^[5], page 59:

     Twitter bots can leverage Twitter′s text message support to allow users to accomplish tasks from their cell phones. You could consider Twitter accounts that are simply an automated import of blog′s RSS feed a Twitter bot.

   • 2017 January 31, Adrienne LaFrance, “The Internet Is Mostly Bots”, in The Atlantic‎^[6], retrieved 2021-09-01:

     Overall, bots—good and bad—are responsible for 52 percent of web traffic, according to a new report by the security firm Imperva, which issues an annual assessment of bot activity online.

3. (video games) A computer-controlled character in a video game, especially a multiplayer one.

   Synonyms: NPC, AI

   • 2012, Philip Hingston, Believable Bots: Can Computers Play Like People?, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 232:

     Most games offer both single player mode, in which a player competes against computer rivals—bots—and a multiplayer mode, which is a contest among people only.

4. (video games, slang, derogatory) A supremely unskilled player.
   • 2021 March 6, Aydan Conrad (quoted), Wesley Yin-Poole, “Call of Duty: Warzone squad sets new world record with an astonishing 162 kills in a single game”, in Eurogamer‎^[7]:

     "That lobby was bronze negative 10!" Aydan joked on-stream, noting how easy it felt for his squad. "We got blessed with the lobby. It was such a bot lobby."

5. (Internet slang, often derogatory) A person with no ability to think for themselves; (by extension) an unintelligent or contemptible person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fool, Thesaurus:jerk

   • [2024 June 10, Chris Stokel-Walker, “The word ‘bot’ is increasingly being used as an insult on social media”, in New Scientist‎^[8], →ISSN, retrieved 2024-06-10:

     The meaning of the word "bot" on Twitter/X seems to have shifted over time, with people originally using it to flag automated accounts, but now employing it to insult people they disagree with[.]]

• -bot

bot (third-person singular simple present bots, present participle botting, simple past and past participle botted)

1. (video games) To use a bot, or automated program.

   Players caught botting will be banned from the server.

• viewbot

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

• BTO, OTB

• IPA^(key): /bɔt/, [bot]

From Dutch bot, from botte. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *buddǭ.

bot (plural botte, diminutive botjie)

1. sprout, bud

bot (present bot, present participle bot, past participle gebot)

1. to sprout, to bud

From Dutch bot, from Middle Dutch bot. Ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *buttaz.

bot (attributive botte, comparative botter, superlative botste)

1. blunt, dull (of an object)
2. obtuse, dull, stupid

bot (plural botte, diminutive botjie)

1. a bone
2. (fish) flounder, fluke, butt

   Synonym: botvis

3. (parasitic flatworm) fluke

   Synonym: slakwurm

bot

1. Alternative spelling of bod

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

From English boat.

bot

1. boat

Deverbal from botar.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈbot]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ot

bot m (plural bots)

1. jump, leap

   Synonyms: salt, saltiró

• botejar

Borrowed from Middle English bot (whence English boat), from Old English bāt (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *baitaz, *baitą (“boat, small ship”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to break, split”).

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈbɔt]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈbot]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ot

bot m (plural bots)

1. boat

   Synonyms: barca, vaixell

Inherited from Late Latin buttis (“wineskin”), probably of Ancient Greek origin.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈbot]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ot

bot m (plural bots)

1. wineskin

   Synonym: odre

2. bagpipes

   Synonyms: bot de gemecs, cornamusa

3. sunfish (large marine fish of the family Molidae)

   Synonym: mola

• ploure a bots i barrals

• “bot” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “bot”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “bot” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “bot” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈbot]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ot

bot

1. inflection of botre:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• buat

Possibly from a derivative of Latin battuō, or alternatively of Germanic origin. Compare Italian botta, French botte.

bot m

1. blow, slap, smack, whack, knock, strike, thud

• IPA^(key): /bɔt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bot
• Rhymes: -ɔt

From Middle Dutch bot, but, butte, related to Middle Low German but (“dull, plump, coarse”), West Frisian bot (“blunt”). Perhaps ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“end, butt”).

bot (comparative botter, superlative botst)

2. not sharp, blunt, dull

   De schaar is te bot om het papier goed te knippen.

   The scissors are too blunt to cut the paper properly.

3. impolite, badly behaving: curt, blunt, rude

   Zijn opmerking was nogal bot en kwetste haar gevoelens.

   His remark was quite impolite and hurt her feelings.

Declension of bot
uninflected	bot
inflected	botte
comparative	botter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		bot	botter	het botst het botste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	botte	bottere	botste
	n. sing.	bot	botter	botste
	plural	botte	bottere	botste
definite		botte	bottere	botste
partitive		bots	botters	—

• Berbice Creole Dutch: dofu
• → Papiamentu: bòt

From Middle Dutch but. Cognate with English butt, German Butt, in all senses.

bot n (plural botten, diminutive botje n)

2. bone

   Synonyms: been, knekel, knook

   De dokter heeft vastgesteld dat hij een gebroken bot heeft.

   The doctor has determined that he has a broken bone.

• penisbot

From Middle Dutch bot. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“stumpy”). Cognate with English butt (“flatfish”), German Butt (“lefteye flounder”), West Frisian bot (“flounder”).

bot m (plural botten, diminutive botje n)

2. flounder (a type of fish)

   Ik heb een heerlijke bot gevangen tijdens het vissen.

   I caught a delicious flounder while fishing.

• heilbot m
• tarbot m

• Afrikaans: bot
• → West Frisian: bot

From French botte.

bot f (plural botten, diminutive botje n)

1. (Belgium) boot

Borrowed from English bot, from robot.

bot m (plural bots, diminutive botje n)

1. a bot (software for repetitive minor tasks; computer-controlled character in video games)

• robot
• chatbot, voicebot

From Middle French bot (16th c.). Of unknown origin. Perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“butt, stump, end”). If so, a doublet of but.

• IPA^(key): /bo/
  • Rhymes: -o
  • Homophones: bau, baud, bauds, baux, beau, beaux, bots
• IPA^(key): /bɔ/ (older, now chiefly Belgium)
  • Rhymes: -ɔ
  • Homophone: bots

bot (feminine bote, masculine plural bots, feminine plural botes)

1. (of a foot) affected by the deformation known as clubfoot

   un pied bot ― a clubfoot

2. (rare, of a hand) affected by a similar-looking deformation

   une main bote ― a deformed hand

From English bot.

• IPA^(key): /bɔt/
• Homophones: bote, botes, bots, botte, bottes
• Rhymes: -ɔt

bot m (plural bots)

1. (computing) bot

• “bot”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): [boːt]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: Boot

bot

1. first/third-person singular preterite of bieten

From a Slavic, language, from Proto-Slavic *bъtъ.

• IPA^(key): [ˈbot]
• Rhymes: -ot

bot (plural botok)

1. stick, staff
2. walking stick, cane

   Synonyms: sétabot, sétapálca

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	bot	botok
accusative	botot	botokat
dative	botnak	botoknak
instrumental	bottal	botokkal
causal-final	botért	botokért
translative	bottá	botokká
terminative	botig	botokig
essive-formal	botként	botokként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	botban	botokban
superessive	boton	botokon
adessive	botnál	botoknál
illative	botba	botokba
sublative	botra	botokra
allative	bothoz	botokhoz
elative	botból	botokból
delative	botról	botokról
ablative	bottól	botoktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	boté	botoké
non-attributive possessive - plural	botéi	botokéi

Possessive forms of bot
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	botom	botjaim
2nd person sing.	botod	botjaid
3rd person sing.	botja	botjai
1st person plural	botunk	botjaink
2nd person plural	bototok	botjaitok
3rd person plural	botjuk	botjaik

• bot in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• bot in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

Derived from English but.

• IPA^(key): /bot/

bot

1. but

   Im waan unu nof taim, bot unu naa lisn.

   He warned you many times, but you didn't listen.

• bot at majstro.com

bot

1. Romanization of ꦧꦺꦴꦠ꧀

From Old English bāt.

• (Early or Northern ME) bate, bat
• bote, boot, boet, boyt, bootte, boote

• IPA^(key): /bɔːt/

bot (plural botes)

1. A seafaring vessel or watercraft; a device for navigating the waters:
   1. A boat (a watercraft or vessel smaller than a ship).
   2. A boat stowed on a ship for utility purposes, especially for tendering.
2. (figurative) The path or course of one's life; one's direction.

• botere

• English: boat
  • Belizean Creole: boat
  • → Esperanto: boato
  • → Dhivehi: ބޯޓު (bōṭu)
  • → Fijian: boto
  • → Hijazi Arabic: بوت (bōt)
  • → Japanese: ボート (bōto)
  • → Pitcairn-Norfolk: boet (Norfuk)
  • → Sinhalese: බෝට්‍ටුව (bōṭṭuwa)
  • → Swahili: boti
  • → Scots: boat, bote (compare native bait, bate)
  • → Tahitian: poti
  • Tok Pisin: bot
• Scots: bate, bait
• → Middle Dutch: boot
  • Dutch: boot
    • Afrikaans: boot
• → Middle Low German: bôt, bott
  • Low German: Boot
  • Plautdietsch: Boot
  • → German: Boot
• → North Frisian: böötj
• → Saterland Frisian: Boot
• → West Frisian: boat
• → Catalan: bot
• → Galician: bote
• → Old French: bot
  • → Portuguese: bote
• → Spanish: bote
  • → Cebuano: bote

• “bōt, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-1-5.

From Old Norse búð.

bot

1. Alternative form of bothe (“booth”)

From Old English batt.

bot

1. Alternative form of bat

From Old English bōt.

bot

1. Alternative form of bote (“help, benefit”)

From Old French bote.

bot

1. Alternative form of bote (“boot”)

From Proto-Celtic *bozdos (“tail, penis”) (compare Welsh both (“hub, nave”), Breton bod (“bush, shrub; branch”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gwosdʰos (“piece of wood”), compare Proto-Slavic *gvozdь (“nail, tack, peg”).

bot m

1. tail
2. penis

• botach

• Irish: bod
• Manx: bwoid
• Scottish Gaelic: bod

Middle Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
bot	bot pronounced with /β(ʲ)-/	mbot
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

From Old Norse bót.

bot f or m (definite singular bota or boten, indefinite plural bøter, definite plural bøtene)

1. a fine (sum of money to be paid as a penalty for an offence)
2. a remedy
3. a patch

• botemiddel
• parkeringsbot

• bøtelegge

• “bot” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “bot_3” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Old Norse bót.

bot f (definite singular bota, indefinite plural bøter, definite plural bøtene)

1. a fine (as above)
2. a remedy
3. a patch

• botemiddel
• parkeringsbot

• bøtelegge

• “bot” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-West Germanic *bōtu (“recompense”).

• IPA^(key): /boːt/

bōt f (nominative plural bōte)

1. help, assistance, rescue, remedy, cure, deliverance from evil
   • Byþ hræd bót. ― The cure will be quick.
2. mending, repair, improvement
   • ... and án swulung þǽre cirican to bóte ― and an offering to the church for repairs
3. compensation for an injury or wrong; (peace) offering, recompense, amends, atonement, reformation, penance, repentance
   • For bóte his synna ― for a redressing of his sins
4. improvement in (moral) condition, amendment
   • Hé tó bóte gehwearf ― he was converted

• Middle English: bote
  • English: boot
  • → English: bote
  • Scots: bute, buit

From Vulgar Latin *padda, probably a Germanic loan from Frankish *paddā (“toad”). Compare Italian botta (“toad”), Old English padde (“toad”), Old Norse padda (“toad”). More at paddock.

bot oblique singular, f (oblique plural boz or botz, nominative singular bot, nominative plural boz or botz)

1. toad (animal)

• boterel

• “bot”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From boter (“to strike”), from Frankish *buttan, from *bautan (“to hit, strike”).

bot oblique singular, m (oblique plural boz or botz, nominative singular boz or botz, nominative plural bot)

1. strike; hit; blow

• cop

See bat.

bot oblique singular, m (oblique plural boz or botz, nominative singular boz or botz, nominative plural bot)

1. Alternative form of bat

See bout.

bot oblique singular, m (oblique plural boz or botz, nominative singular boz or botz, nominative plural bot)

1. Alternative form of bout

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (bot) (sense #1, 'toad' and #2, 'strike')
• bot on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub (sense #3, 'boat' and a citation or sense #4, 'end')

• bwat

• IPA^(key): /ˈbot/

Inherited from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bəʀəqat (compare Malay berat). Doublet of bwat and wrat.

bot

1. heavy

• Javanese: ꦧꦺꦴꦠ꧀ (bot)

Inherited from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *buhat. Doublet of bwat and wwat.

bot

1. style, make

• "bot" in P.J. Zoetmulder with the collaboration of S.O. Robson, Old Javanese-English Dictionary. 's-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1982.

• ᛒᚮᛏ

From Old Norse bót, from Proto-Germanic *bōtō.

bōt f

1. improvement
2. benefit, utility
3. cure
4. compensation

or

• Swedish: bot

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔt
• Syllabification: bot
• Homophone: bod

Borrowed from Old Czech bot, from French botte.

bot m inan (diminutive botek)

1. ankle boot

Borrowed from English bot.

bot m animal

1. (computing) bot

• bot in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• bot in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English bot. Doublet of robô.

• Homophone: bote

bot m (plural bots)

1. (computing) bot (a piece of software for doing repetitive tasks)
2. (video games) bot (a player controlled by software)

Unknown. Possibly from a Vulgar Latin root *botum, perhaps from Latin botulus or from a root *botium, a Germanic borrowing, from Frankish *boce (“knob”), from Old High German bozzan (“to beat”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan (“to push, strike”).^[1]

Compare Italian bozza, French bosse. See also butuc and boț.

bot n (plural boturi)

1. (of animals) snout, mouth
2. (of a person, vulgar) mouth
3. bump
4. hump
5. (vulgar) blowjob

• (mouth): gură
• (bump): umflătură, cucui
• (hump): cocoașă

• cioc
• rât

From English bot.

bot m (plural boți)

1. bot

• bot in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Borrowed from English bot.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbot/ [ˈbot̪]
• Rhymes: -ot
• Syllabification: bot

bot m (plural bots)

1. bot (robot)

• “bot”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28

From Old Swedish bōt (“improvement”), from Old Norse ᛒᚢᛏ (but) (in the Latin script bót) whence also Icelandic bót), from Proto-Germanic *bōtō. Akin to English boot (“remedy, profit”). Masculine in Late Modern Swedish.

• IPA^(key): /buːt/

• Audio (Gotland):

  (file)

bot c

1. fine (penalty in money)

• In newer usage, the indefinite plural böter has frequently been reinterpreted as a singular noun due to usage without an article. Thus, for example, the common phrase "betala böter" has shifted in meaning from "pay fines" to "pay a fine". This is unrecognized by language authorities, however.

• böta
• bötfälla

Originally the same word as etymology 1.

• IPA^(key): /buːt/

• Audio (Gotland):

  (file)

bot c

1. cure; remedy
2. (religious) penance

• bota
• botemedel

Unadapted borrowing from English bot.

• IPA^(key): /bɔt/

bot c

1. bot (robot)

• bot in Svensk ordbok.

From Proto-Turkic *būt (“thigh”).

bot

1. thigh

From French botte.

• IPA^(key): /bot/

bot (definite accusative botu, plural botlar)

1. boot

From English boat

• IPA^(key): /bot/

bot (definite accusative botu, plural botlar)

1. boat

   Synonym: tekne

bot (nominative plural bots)

1. boat

From Old Frisian butie, from Proto-West Germanic *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“end piece”), related to English butt.

• IPA^(key): /bot/

bot

1. curt, blunt, rude
2. dull (as a knife)

Inflection of bot
uninflected	bot
inflected	botte
comparative	botter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		bot	botter	it botst it botste
indefinite	c. sing.	botte	bottere	botste
	n. sing.	bot	botter	botste
	plural	botte	bottere	botste
definite		botte	bottere	botste
partitive		bots	botters	—

• “bot (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

bot

1. very, quite

• “bot (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

Uncertain. Possibly derived from bot (“blunt-headed fish”), in which case ultimately from the source of Etymology 1 above. Compare Dutch bot and the second element of English halibut.

• IPA^(key): /bot/

bot c (plural botten, diminutive botsje or botke)

1. flounder (a type of fish)

• “bot (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “bot1”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute