Abbreviations For Texting: IM, Chat, and SMS Slang

Tap to Read ➤ Edward K.

Some of the common terms, abbreviations, slang, and symbols used in instant messaging, chat rooms, and also by users of the Short Message Service on mobile phones have been listed in this story.

These days, though cell phones have done away with the 160 character upper limit, the 'shortcut' language is still in use to save money. With 160 characters counted as a single SMS, many people still try to get their entire message across in 160 characters itself, rather than paying additional amounts of money for crossing the 160 character limit.

And as with everything else, this language has also evolved further, in fact so much that the other day, I got an SMS from my sister that I didn't understand at all. It seemed like total gibberish, and I had half a mind to call her and yell at her for wasting my time. Luckily for her, a younger colleague deciphered the message before any harm could be done.

When I asked her later, she was surprised that I didn't understand, saying that it was a relatively simple message. Ahh, youth. Taking a look at some of the examples of messages on her phone just left me all muddled and confused.

I kid you not, these messages sounded like some code or something, and I'm sure that all those government agencies [you know which ones I mean, right] would have been all excited had they caught a glimpse of them. This just led me to delve deeper into the matter, and I soon realized how out of touch I was. [read:old].

And that was just on the phone. With the Internet moving as fast as it is, IM and chat rooms have increased in popularity as well. Almost anyone who works on the Internet, or rather uses the Internet, has an IM account. What is this IM, you ask? IM or instant messaging, is an application that two or more people use to message in real time over the net.

The more famous of these are AOL, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, MSN and ICQ. Very convenient if you need to talk to people who are geographically far away from you, all you need is the messenger and an Internet connection. Now this being real time, it is blazingly fast. It is just like talking, only you have to type what you want to say.

If you think about that a little, you can see how having shortcuts will help you. For example: typing good morning will take longer than typing 'GM', which is the standard abbreviation for good morning in chat slang. You see where I am going with this?

It is waaay faster to shorten words, make up abbreviations and use symbols that type the entire word or phrase. Unfortunately, the other party needs to understand these as well. Seeing something like 'TTYL' on you screen might boggle the mind, unless you know what it means. For the uninitiated, TTYL means Talk To You Later.

There are thousands of these abbreviations and acronyms that are used in chatting and messaging, and there are new ones being made up everyday. When in use for a period of time, they become standard. So you might also be able to think up a few. Anyway, so you get my point. While well-known to all who use IM frequently, these might be strange for many.

So I decided that I'd put up a list of at least the more common of these abbreviations and codes and symbols and other arcane shortcuts that have totally ruined the English language. Mind, it does come in handy when you want to send of a quick message.

At least it works for me [I have been notorious for my laziness in typing, I usually just call] and though I don't use it so often now as I used to, I still manage a few a week.

Abbreviations For Texting: IM, Chat, and SMS Slang

AAK Alive And Kicking AAR At Any Rate AAS Alive And Smiling ADN Any Day Now AFAIK As Far As I Know

IOW In Other Words IRL In Real Life IYO In Your Opinion JAS Just A Second JIC Just In Case JK Just Kidding

JMO Just My Opinion JW Just Wondering KIT Keep In Touch L8R Later LMAO Laughing My Ass Off LFFAO Laughing My F***(freaking) Ass Off

AFK Away From Keyboard AFN That's All For Now AOTA All Of The Above ASL Age/Sex/Location B4 Before BAK Back At Keyboard

LOL Laughing Out Loud LTNS Long Time No See LTS Laughing To One's Self LY Love Ya LYL Love You Lots NE1 Anyone

NFW No Feasible (or F***ing) Way NIMBY Not In My Backyard NM Never Mind ABBR MEANING NP No Problem NRN No Response Necessary/Not Right Now

NT No Thanks OBTW Oh, By The Way OIC Oh, I See OMG Oh My God OTOH On The Other Hand OTOMH Off the Top of My Head

P911 Parents in room PEBCAK Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard PMJI Pardon Me for Jumping In POTS Parents Over The Shoulder QT Cutie ROFL Rolling On Floor Laughing

BMA Bite My A** BR Best Regards BRB Be Right Back BRH Be Right Here BSEG Big S**t Eatin Grin BTA But Then Again

ROTFLMAO Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off SOL Shit Out Of Luck SOTA State Of The Art SPST Same Place, Same Time SSDD Same S**t, Different Day TAFN That's All For Now

TTYL Talk To You Later WFM Works For Me WIIFM What's In It For Me? WTG Way To Go WWJD What Would Jesus Do? YMMV Your Mileage May Vary

BBL Be Back Later BBS Be Back Soon BCNU Be Seeing You b/f, BF Boyfriend BEG Big Evil Grin BFN Bye For Now

BTW By The Way CRS Can't Remember S**t CU/CYA See You CU Can't Understand CUL8R See You Later CUOL See You On Line

DDSS Different Day, Same S**t ABBR MEANING DEGT Don't Even Go There DIKU Do I Know You? DIS Did I Say EG Evil Grin

EMA E-mail Address F2F Face To Face FAQ Frequently Asked Question FOCL Falling Off Chair Laughing FTS F*** This S*** FUBAR "Fouled" Up Beyond All Repair

YR Yea, Right WWJD What Would Jesus Do? YR Your Mileage May Vary YW You're Welcome

FUD Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt FWIW For What It's Worth FYI For Your Information GA Go Ahead GAL Get A Life g/f, GF Girlfriend

GFN Gone For Now GGOH Gotta Get Outta Here GMTA Great Minds Think Alike GR Gotta Run GR&D Grining, Running, and Ducking GTRM Going To Read Mail

H&K Hugs and Kisses HAGD Have A Good Day HAGO Have A Good One HB Hurry Back HTH Hope That Helps IAC In Any Case

IB I'm Back IC I See ABBR MEANING IDK I Don't Know IDTS I Don't Think So IANAL I Am Not A Lawyer

ICQ I Seek You ILU/ILY I Love You IM Instant Message IMHO In My Humble Opinion IMO In My Opinion IOH I'm Out of Here

Some Not So Common Chat Slang and Abbreviations

AFK Away From Keyboard AIAMU And I'm A Monkey's Uncle AKA Also Known As ANFSCD And Now For Something Completely Different AOAS All Of A Sudden

AWLTP Avoiding Work Like The Plague AYSOS Are You Stupid Or Something AYTMTB And You're Telling Me This Because BFO Blinding Flash of the Obvious BICBW But I Could Be Wrong BOTOH But On The Other Hand

CMIW Correct Me If I'm Wrong DHTB Don't Have The Bandwidth DHYB Don't Hold Your Breath DKDC Don't Know Don't Care DQMOT Don't Quote Me On This ESO Equipment Smarter than Operator

FTBOMH From The Bottom Of My Heart GALGAL Give A Little Get A Little GFETE Grinning From Ear To Ear GMAB Give Me A Break HITAKS Hang In There And Keep Smiling HIOOC Help, I'm Out Of Coffee

HTNOTH Hit The Nail On The Head IBIWISI I'll Believe It When I See It ISWYMI See What You Mean J2LYK Just To Let You Know LMTCB Left Message To Call Back LOL Laughing Out Loud LOPSOD Long On Promises, Short On Delivery

MTCW My Two Cents Worth MTFBWY May The Force Be With You NIMJD Not In My Job Description TOBG This Oughta Be Good WTTTM Without Thinking Too Much WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get

Some Romantic SMS Slang and Abbreviations

ALIWanIsU All I Want Is You ALOrO All Or Nothing AML All My Love BaBitsU Baby It's You BBSD Be Back Soon Darling

BGWM Be Gentle With Me CSThnknAU Can't Stop Thinking About You CUIMD See You In My Dreams 4EVRYRS Forever Yours GMeSumLuvin Gimme Some Lovin' GrwOldWivMe Grow Old With Me

HITULThtILuvU Have I Told You Lately That I Love You HldMeClse Hold Me Close ICLWYL I Can't Live Without Your LoveI JC2SalLuvUI Just Called To Say I Love You ImT14U I'm The One For You IOWAN2BWU Only Want To Be With You

LtsGt2gthr Let's Get Together Luv2LuvUBab Love To Love You Baby M$ULkeCraZ Miss You Like Crazy RmbaYaMne Remember You're Mine SvnALMyLuv4U Saving All My Love For You SWALK Sent With A Loving Kiss

Whew! ISTICSF! [I'm So Tired I Could Sleep Forever]...see I told you it's easy to make your own slang. Just make sure that the other person understands it. Otherwise you will end up wasting more time typing out the explanation as well. And wasn't all this made just to save time? This is just the tip of the iceberg though.

There are many many more abbreviations and slang that are used in IM, SMS and chat, that would take me forever to cover. However, the lists here are pretty exhaustive and if you know most of them, you will be able to hold your own with serious chatters on the net.

So go through them, and maybe the next time you chat with someone, you won't end up feeling like you are talking to some martian.