Text Abbreviations Study
Last update: 3/30/2026
Text abbreviations are the secret language of the internet. You could even call them an integral part of social media culture. Snappy, always changing and hard to understand. Texting is all about saving time and appearing cool. Keeping up to date with the newest trending abbreviations is no easy task. Old meanings can change while new abbreviations are created.
A recent study found that abbreviations might not be as cool as people think. Using abbreviations makes the sender seem less sincere. This also leads to lower engagement and shorter responses. There is nothing wrong with using abbreviations in casual messaging with friends and family. However it is best do draw a line for professional conversations. Context matters.
Americas Most Popular Text Abbreviations 2026
| Top | Abbreviation | Meaning | Monthly searches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | SYBAU | Shut your b---h ass up. | 333,100 |
| 2. | FAFO | F--k around and find out. | 274,600 |
| 3. | SMH | Shake my head. | 201,800 |
| 4. | PMO | "P-sses me off" or "Put me on". | 142,500 |
| 5. | TS | "Tough sh-t" or "Talk soon". | 97,000 |
| 6. | TBH | To be honest. | 85,500 |
| 7. | OTP | One true pairing. | 82,800 |
| 8. | ASL | As hell. | 81,600 |
| 9. | NFS | New friends. | 77,900 |
| 10. | POV | Point of view. | 75,100 |
| 11. | WYD | What are you doing? | 68,400 |
| 12. | WYLL | What you look like. | 67,000 |
| 13. | WYF | Where are you from. | 66,700 |
| 14. | ISTG | I Swear to god. | 65,100 |
| 15. | ATP | At this point. | 64,800 |
| 16. | WTW | What's the word. | 61,500 |
| 17. | FWB | Friends with benefits. | 58,200 |
| 18. | HMU | Hit me up. | 57,700 |
| 19. | FML | F--k my life. | 56,400 |
| 20. | ICL | I Can't Lie. | 54,700 |
| 21. | FS | For sure. | 54,400 |
| 22. | DW | Don't worry. | 54,100 |
| 23. | LMS | Like my status. | 52,300 |
| 24. | IMO | In my opinion. | 51,700 |
| 25. | WTV | Whatever. | 49,600 |
| 26. | ISO | In search of. | 48,900 |
| 27. | WSG | What's good? | 48,300 |
| 28. | MB | My bad. | 48,000 |
| 29. | GTS | Go to bed. | 46,500 |
| 30. | ETA | Estimated time of arrival. | 46,400 |
| 31. | WYO | What you on? | 46,100 |
| 32. | NGL | Not gonna lie. | 43,300 |
| 33. | WTM | What's the move. | 38,300 |
| 34. | ICYMI | In case you missed it. | 38,100 |
| 35. | BTA | "Better than average" or "But then again". | 38,000 |
| 36. | BTW | By the way. | 37,100 |
| 37. | MK | Mmm, okay. | 36,900 |
| 38. | CYA | Cover your ass. | 36,700 |
| 39. | MBN | Must be nice. | 36,600 |
| 40. | LOML | Love of my life. | 35,600 |
| 41. | WFH | Work from home. | 35,500 |
| 42. | IIRC | If i remember correctly. | 34,500 |
| 43. | PFP | Picture for proof. | 31,600 |
| 44. | ETC | And the rest. | 27,100 |
| 45. | HY | Hell yeah. | 26,500 |
| 46. | NTM | Nothing much. | 24,800 |
| 47. | GMFU | Got me f----d up. | 23,900 |
| 48. | TTM | Talk to me. | 22,700 |
| 49. | DTM | Doing too much. | 22,100 |
| 50. | TFW | That feeling when. | 17,900 |
The list of the most confusing text abbreviations is always changing. In 2026 our research found many new top acronyms and even some change in meanings for older ones. It is fascinating that social media trends can easily change the mainstream meaning of an acronym within a short frame of time. An example is PMO where the mainstream meaning changed from "Put me on" to "P-sses me off". Keep in mind that the meaning of an acronym can change depending on the community it is used in. Acronyms are an effective, lazy and cool way to communicate. Context truly matters when using acronyms in conversations. Should you use texting shortcuts for friends, a family member, a work colleague or an online forum? A 2024 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology (involving over 5,300 participants across eight experiments, including real Tinder and Discord conversations) found that using acronyms signals lower effort to recipients. As a result, senders come across as less sincere. The perceived low effort leads to fewer replies, shorter responses and reduced engagement overall. This effect holds true regardless of age(including younger people who use abbreviations the most) and familiarity with the sender. Spelling words out shows that you are invested in the conversation. People notice this!
We analyzed 01.01.2026 - 24.03.2026 search data from Google Trends for terms related to text abbreviations.
Americas Most Popular Text Abbreviations 2025
| Top | Abbreviation | Meaning | Monthly searches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | FAFO | F--k around and find out. | 254,000 |
| 2. | SMH | Shake my head. | 166,000 |
| 3. | PMO | Put me on. | 101,000 |
| 4. | OTP | One true pairing. | 95,000 |
| 5. | TBH | To be honest. | 93,000 |
| 6. | ATP | At this point. | 85,000 |
| 7. | TS | Talk soon. | 79,000 |
| 8. | WYF | Where are you from. | 76,000 |
| 9. | NFS | New friends. | 75,000 |
| 10. | ASL | As hell. | 65,000 |
| 11. | POV | Point of view. | 63,000 |
| 12. | WYLL | What you look like. | 59,000 |
| 13. | FS | For sure. | 58,000 |
| 14. | FML | F--k my life. | 56,000 |
| 15. | DW | Don't worry. | 55,000 |
| 16. | HMU | Hit me up. | 54,000 |
| 17. | ISO | In search of. | 53,000 |
| 18. | WSG | What's good? | 50,000 |
| 19. | IMO | In my opinion. | 48,000 |
| 20. | MK | Mmm, okay. | 45,000 |
| 21. | ETA | Estimated time of arrival. | 40,000 |
| 22. | ICL | I Can't Lie. | 37,000 |
| 23. | MB | My bad. | 37,000 |
| 24. | STG | Swear to god. | 29,000 |
| 25. | ION | In other media. | 28,000 |
| 26. | PFP | Picture for proof. | 27,000 |
| 27. | NTM | Nothing much. | 27,000 |
| 28. | DTM | Doing too much. | 26,000 |
| 29. | TTM | Talk to me. | 26,000 |
| 30. | MBN | Must be nice. | 25,000 |
| 31. | ETC | And the rest. | 24,000 |
| 32. | BTW | By the way. | 23,000 |
| 33. | WFH | Work from home. | 21,000 |
| 34. | GMFU | Got me f----d up. | 20,000 |
| 35. | NGL | Not gonna lie. | 19,000 |
| 36. | SYBAU | Shut your b---h ass up. | 19,000 |
| 37. | BTA | But then again. | 17,000 |
| 38. | SB | Somebody. | 17,000 |
| 39. | HBD | Happy Birthday. | 16,000 |
| 40. | PMG | Oh my god. | 15,000 |
| 41. | HY | Hell yeah. | 15,000 |
| 42. | TMB | Text me back. | 11,000 |
| 43. | WYS | Whatever you say. | 10,000 |
| 44. | GNG | Gang (close friends or family). | 9,000 |
| 45. | IKTR | I know that's right. | 8,000 |
| 46. | IKR | I know, right? | 7,000 |
| 47. | ARD | Alright. | 6,000 |
| 48. | IFG | I f-----g guess. | 5,500 |
| 49. | HN | Hell no. | 4,000 |
| 50. | TTH | Trying too hard. | 3,000 |
We analyzed 01.01.2025 -15.03.2025 search data from Google Trends for terms related to text abbreviations.
Methodology
We used Google Trends to discover the top trending text abbreviations and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. The most popular text abbreviations can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword variations of 'meaning text'.
Abbreviations are used most often on social media and texting. The top trending abbreviations are the least understood. People have to search for their meaning (example 'TBH meaning text'). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like 'text meaning' or 'means in text'(example 'PMO meaning in text') and similar keyword combinations(example 'what does SMH mean in text'). We added up 100 search variations of top text abbreviations.