Glossary

SMS terminology

Common SMS Terminology and Abbreviations

When texting or chatting online, people who have grown up using the Internet or mobile phones have gotten used to shortening and abbreviating their language to reduce the cost of sending text messages or to send a message faster. As a result, many young people have gotten used to using this shortened terminology in day to day communication.

Many of these are logical and easy to figure out - for example, simply removing the vowels from a word, or replacing letters with numbers that create the same sound. Others are more difficult to figure out. To help you out, we've put together a guide to some of the more common abbreviations.

 

afk away from keyboard
b4 before
b4n or bfn bye for now
bcos or bcoz because
bf boyfriend or best friend
brb be right back
btn better than nothing
btw by the way
c… continue… or continued…
cbb can't be bothered
dunno don't know
dw don't worry
evry1 everyone
fubar f**ked up beyond all recognition
ftw for the win
fyi for your information
g go
gf girlfriend
gtg or g2g got to go
gts or g2s going to sleep
idc I don't care
idk I don't know
ihy or i</3u or -143 I hate you
ily or i<3u or 143 I love you
imho in my humble / honest opinion
imo in my opinion
jk just kidding or just joking
k okay
lol laugh out loud
lmao laughing my ass off
lqtm laughing quietly to myself
ma mildly amused
msg message
ofc of course
omg oh my god / gosh
ploc pretending to laugh out of courtesy
r are
rofl rolling on floor laughing
soz or sry sorry
stfu shut the f**k up
str8 straight
sux sucks
ss stay sexy
tc take care
tty l8r or ttyl or t2yl talk to you later
thx thanks
tbh to be honest
whyd or whud

what have you done

 

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Original Sources:

Wikipedia - SMS Language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_language

NetLingo - Acronyms: http://netlingo.com/acronyms