Botnet
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A collection of compromised computers that is gradually built up and then unleashed as a DDOS attack or used to send very large quantities of spam. Internet
"Then they blacklisted addresses used by spammers. In response, senders started using botnets (networks of otherwise innocent computers)."
- 2 spyware
"Google Chrome is botnet, use Firefox instead"
Example
More examples"The president of Eurojust called the cybercrime group, known as Avalanche, "one of the world's largest and most malicious botnet infrastructures" and said its take-down by authorities was one of the biggest to date."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃erbʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos Proto-Balto-Slavic *árbas Proto-Slavic *orbъ Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Balto-Slavic *-éitei Proto-Slavic *-iti Proto-Slavic *orbiti Proto-Indo-European *-otéh₂ Proto-Balto-Slavic *-atā́ˀ Proto-Slavic *-ota Proto-Slavic *orbota Old Czech robota Czech robota Czech robotbor. English robot English bot Proto-Indo-European *neHd- Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *natją Proto-West Germanic *nati Old English nett Middle English net English net English botnet From bot + net.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.