clanker

From clank +‎ -er, onomatopoeic.^[1]

The sense meaning "robot" appears in science fiction at least as early as 1958.^[2] Its broader popular use increased on social media beginning around 2024, due to the AI boom. In this wave of usage, it was especially influenced by the word's appearance in the Star Wars franchise, particularly the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando.^[3]

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈklæŋkəɹ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

clanker (plural clankers)

1. Something that makes a clanking noise.
   • 2007 September 9, Jennifer Dunning, “Choreographic Evidence That Laughing Matters”, in New York Times‎^[4]:

     The robots, designed by Kenjiro Okazaki, are cardboard tubes rather than the usual metal clankers.

2. (Internet slang, derogatory, humorous, originally science fiction) A robot or artificial intelligence.

   Alternative form: clanka

   Synonyms: tinskin, wireback

   I got laid off 'cause they got them goddamn clankers taking our jobs.

   • 2005 March 1, John A. Hancock, Ryan Kaufman, Justin Lambros, Michael Stemmie, Star Wars: Republic Commando, spoken by Sev (Jonathan David Cook):

     Lousy clanker.

   • 2008 October 3, George Lucas, Steven Melching, “Ambush”, in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Jek (Dee Bradley Baker):

     Okay clankers, suck lasers!

   • 2024 October 12, @Banbuds, Twitter‎^[5], archived from the original on 5 June 2025:

     Already can't stand these fucking clankers

   • 2024 October 19, @solid_n8, Instagram‎^[6], archived from the original on 7 June 2025:

     Could i call a robot a clanker one day or would i have to stop when they gain conciousness^[sic] like in Detroit become human

   • 2025 August 31, Eli Tan, “How ‘Clanker’ Became an Anti-A.I. Rallying Cry”, in The New York Times‎^[7], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     The most popular genre of clanker content are videos of people acting out a future, usually a few decades away, where A.I.-powered robots are so ubiquitous that they become their own kind of second-class citizen. In this future, there is “cross platform” marriage between clankers and humans, humans-only drinking fountains and even more animosity toward robots than today.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

3. (Internet slang, by extension) A person who uses automated technology or AI.

   Education is getting overtaken by clankers.

4. (slang) A fib.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:lie

   Stop telling clankers!

   • 1899, Paul Leicester Ford, Janice Meredith, page 388:

     Have done with all thought of the fellow and of his clankers concerning his birth.

   • 2010, Maggie MacKeever, Our Tabby, →ISBN:

     "What a clanker!" Drusilla protested. "You're hardly setting us a good example, Pa!"

   • 2020, Anna Lee Huber, A Stroke of Malice, →ISBN, page 41:

     His lips quirked. "It's more likely you'll wish to spend the evening debating whether these clankers his lordship is telling us are true, and how they originated."

• (derogatory: robot): Looked down upon by some Internet commentators due to clear parallels in many usages with anti-Black slurs, such as quips about "clanker with a hard r".

• “clanker n. (gross, deliberate lie)”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• [Francis Grose] (1785), “Clanker”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC.

• Lackner, crankle