ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — “What does TLDR mean?” Face it, most of us have been there, using Google to figure out what someone just said in a Facebook comment.
Text shorthand has been around almost as long as cell phones.
In the ’90s they used “c u l8r (see you later)” that you could phonetically sound out. Though with today’s constant acronym usage, it’s easy to get lost while navigating social media or dealing with a text from your teen.
The social media experts at How Sociable dug through piles of data from Google and found the 20 most confusing text shorthand/acronyms that users have searched for the meaning of.
- “SMH” – Shake/Shaking My Head
- “TBH” – To Be Honest
- “POV” – Point Of View
- “NSFW” – Not Safe For Work (Don’t click that link at the office!)
- “LMAO” – Laughing My A** Off
- “OP”- Original Post/Poster
- “TTYL” – Talk To You Later
- “AFK” – Away From Keyboard
- “TLDR”- Too Long Didn’t Read
- “IIRC” – If I Recall Correctly
- “TFW” – That Feeling When
- “FTW” – For The Win
- “NFS” – Not For Sale
- “FWIW” – For What It’s Worth
- “IMO” – In My Opinion
- “IRL” – In Real Life
- “LOL” – Laugh Out Loud
- “YOLO” – You Only Live Once
- “TIL” – Today I Learned
- “DM”- Direct Message
Other various text abbreviations and slang that might come in handy:
- “OMW” – On My Way
- “IMO/IMHO” – In My Opinion/In My Humble Opinion
- “DND” – Do Not Disturb
- SO(S/O) – Significant Other
- ICYMI – In Case You Missed It
- “No Cap” – No lie/I’m not lying
- “Sus” – Something or someone is suspicious/suspect
- “Lowkey” – Moderately
- “Extra” – acting dramatic or exaggerated
Hopefully, you’re armed and ready to fire back at your teen’s text or that reply on Twitter.
While these are the most searched definitions as of this writing, rest assured, the next shorthand/abbreviation/acronym trend isn’t far away.
For even more abbreviations and slang, you can check out this page from Kaspersky cybersecurity.
