: a test to prevent spamming software from accessing a website by requiring visitors to the site to solve a simple puzzle (typically by reading and transcribing a series of numbers or letters from a distorted image) in order to gain access
The point of the CAPTCHA is that reading those swirly letters is something that computers aren't very good at. If you can read them, you're probably not a piece of software run by a spammer.— Lev Grossman