Text Abbreviations Study
Last update: 3/21/2025
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 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.