People are surprised after finding out what SPAM really stands for

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# People Are Surprised After Finding Out What SPAM Really Stands For

It’s one of those words everyone knows, yet few people ever stop to question.

SPAM.

You see it in your email inbox.
You hear jokes about it in tech culture.
You might even have a can of it sitting quietly on a supermarket shelf.

But ask most people what **SPAM actually stands for**, and you’ll usually get one of two reactions:

A blank stare…
or a very confident—but very wrong—answer.

The truth is stranger, simpler, and more interesting than most people expect.

And once you know it, you’ll never look at the word the same way again.

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## The Word We Think We Know

Today, “spam” has two dominant meanings:

1. **Unwanted digital messages** – emails, texts, calls, ads
2. **A canned meat product** that’s been around for nearly a century

These two meanings seem completely unrelated.

One clogs your inbox.
The other sits in your pantry.

So how did the same word come to represent both?

And more importantly—what does SPAM *really* stand for?
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