With Twitter users growing at a massive rate and moving from 200 million to 300 million accounts in a matter of months, it seems that the Twitter domain is taking on a culture of its own. We’ve even seen tweets be an instrumental tool in bringing down dominant, decades-long government regimes.
It seems to me twitter has developed a language of its own, taking from the early mobile text acronyms. Multiple twitter dictionaries and cheat sheets are popping up all over the internet. I never thought I would be talking in a series of abbreviations and hashtags to get my point across effectively. Then again, I never thought I’d be limited to getting my point across in 140 characters or less.
To the untrained eye, a savvy tweet may be gibberish. However, with a little training, you too could be communicating in this “twitter code.”
Not only that, the hashtag symbol will organize the over 200 million tweets-per-day into real-time trending topics and easy-navigation by subject. They can even be used to help explain context in an otherwise obscure, shortened, 140 character statement.
To help you out, below is yet another list for you to add to your cache of shorthand twitter speak. It is by no means exhaustive, so feel free to add to it in the comments.
@ = Reply to username
AFAIK = As far as I know
bc or b/c = Because
BG = Background (referring to their Twitter background)
BFN = Bye for now
BR = Best regards
BRB = Be right back
BTW = By the way
CT = Cutweet= It’s a shortened retweet that had to be shortened to include all of the information. Usually happens when there are a lot of RT’ed users.
DM = Direct message
EM = Email
FB = Facebook
F2F or FTF = Face to face
FTW/FTL = For the win/for the loss
FWIW = For what it’s worth
Gr8 = Great
H/T = Hat tip
HTH = Hope that helps
IDK = I don’t know
IIRC = If I recall correctly
IMO = In my opinion
IMHO = In my honest/humble opinion
IRL = In real life
JK or J/K or JP = Just kidding, Just playing
JSYK = Just so you know
LI = LinkedIn
LMK = Let me know
LMBO = Laughing my butt off
LOL = Laughing out loud (I’ve also seen people use LOL to mean “lots of love”.)
NP = No problem
NSFW = Not safe for work
OCT = Obsessive compulsive Twitterer
OH = Overheard
OMG = Oh my God
OOT = Out of touch
PLZ = Please
PPL = People
PRT = Please retweet
RE = regarding
ROFL = Rolling on the floor laughing
RT = ReTweet
RTHX/TQRT = Thanks for the retweet
SMH = Shaking my head
STW = Search the web (for you lazy Twitterers)
TMB = Tweet me back
TMI = Too much information (Some of you need to be aware of this.)
TTYS = Talk to you soon
TTYL = Talk to you later
TWTBL = Tweet back later
TY = Thank you
Via @ = Crediting a user for their tweet, but not copying it verbatim
W/E = Whatever or weekend
WTH = What the hell
YGTR = You got that right
YT = YouTube
YW/YVW = You’re welcome/You’re very welcome
ZOMG = OMG to the 10th degree
<3 = Text version of a heart. (I would argue that it’s a kiss too.)