What is the meaning of ‘crunk’? Ask the Dictionary.com bot

Dictionary.com launched a Facebook Messenger bot today to help people look up words and, in the future, share the Word of the Day.

The bot gives word definitions when a user types a single word or full sentence questions like “What’s a synonym for awesome?” or “What’s the definition of awesome?” The first definition is shown by the bot. Additional definitions can be seen by pressing the See More button that redirects users to the Dictionary.com website.

“The development and use of the bot on Facebook Messenger is really a starting point for us — we’re using it as a testing ground for new intelligence products, as we think about developing bots within other applications, as well as new standalone intelligence products,” said Dictionary.com VP Richard Bullwinkle.

In what seems to be a growing trend, Dictionary.com decided to make a bot partly as a way to serve users with little memory on their phone for app downloads.

“It’s harder and harder to get people to download apps because consumers have their favorite social media platforms on which they spend the majority of their time,” Bullwinkle said. “While we are always encouraging users to come to our site and download our apps, we don’t want to ignore those who don’t have the desire or space for additional apps.”

And “crunk”? “Crunk,” as defined by Dictionary.com, is “a type of hip-hop originating in the southern U.S. and characterized by heavy bass and call-and-response vocals.”