# spam

Pronunciation: US say "SPAM" /ˈspæm/; UK

## Noun

1. A canned cooked meat made mainly from ham, sold in rectangular cans.
   - Simple: A canned meat made mostly from ham, sold ready to eat.
   - _He sliced the spam and added it to the rice._
   - _Many island households keep a few cans of spam in the pantry._
6. Excessive online messages, often unwanted and posted repeatedly.
   - Simple: Too many unwanted messages posted online again and again.
   - _Her notifications were buried under spam._
   - _The group chat turned into spam after the link was shared._
7. Unwanted electronic material of any kind that is churned out automatically to make money.
   - Simple: Unwanted online content made by machines to sell things.
   - _Search engines try to push spam down in their rankings._
   - _The platform removes spam generated by automated accounts._
9. A large quantity of something done repetitively, or regarded as unusually repetitive.
   - Simple: A huge amount of the same thing done over and over.
   - _The final boss fight devolved into pure spam from both players._
   - _Reviewers complained that the game rewards spam over genuine skill._
10. Ellipsis of spam account. — Ellipsis of spam account.
   - Simple: Short for spam account. Use it for a second, more private social media account for close friends.
   - _He keeps a spam for venting where his family won't see it._
   - _Most of her unfiltered thoughts go on her spam, away from public view._

## Verb

3. To send unsolicited electronic messages to a particular person or organization.
   - Simple: To send unwanted bulk messages to a person or company.
   - _Marketers spam customers with offers they never signed up for._
   - _He spammed the entire department with promotional emails._
4. To send unsolicited electronic messages, especially in large quantities.
   - Simple: To send out unwanted bulk messages to lots of people.
   - _Accounts that spam repeatedly tend to get suspended._
   - _She kept spamming until the moderators stepped in._
5. To send messages over and over, often causing disruption by flooding a channel or person.
   - Simple: To send the same messages again and again, flooding a place online.
   - _Angry fans spammed the studio's inbox with complaints._
   - _When players spam in the group chat, others lose track of the conversation._
8. To perform an action rapidly and repeatedly, especially in a video game.
   - Simple: To do the same action very fast, again and again.
   - _She spammed her strongest move until the boss finally fell._
   - _Beginners often spam attacks instead of timing them carefully._

## Noun

2. Unwanted bulk electronic messages sent to large numbers of recipients who did not request them. *(rare)*
   - Simple: Junk emails or messages sent to many people who did not ask for them.
   - _The filter moved most of the spam into a separate folder._
   - _Companies that send spam can face heavy fines._

## Origin

The original sense, a canned ham, was a proprietary name registered by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in the U.S. in 1937, presumed to be a conflation of either "spiced ham" or "shoulder of pork and ham." The use for unwanted email derives from a 1970 Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch in which Vikings repeatedly chant "spam"; the earliest recorded real-life use in this sense is around 1993, though the word appears earlier in the 1980s in relation to multi-user computer games (MUDs).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/spam (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).