Internet Slang

List of Internet slang phrases


This is a list of both complete and abbreviated Internet slang.
A
AFAICR/S/T - As Far As I Can Recall/Remember/See/Tell
AFAIK - As Far As I Know
AFK - Away From Keyboard
AIUI - As I Understand It
ASL - Age / Sex / Location
ASAP - As Soon As Possible
ATM - At The Moment
AYBABTU - All Your Base Are Belong To Us (from the game Zero Wing)
B
B2B - 'Business 2 Business' (Also Known As 'Back 2 Back')
BBIAB - Be Back In A Bit
BBL - Be Back Later
BBN - Be Back Never {suicide reference}
BBS - Be Back Soon
BCNU - Be Seein' You
Blog - Weblog
BOFH - Bastard Operator From Hell
(Ro)Bot - any type of automated software in chat rooms and Web-cataloging software
BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again (from military slang)
BSOD - Blue Screen of Death
BRB - Be Right Back
BRT - Be Right There
BTDT - Been There Done That
BTW - By The Way
C
Cartooney (adj/noun) - an unfounded legal threat often involving a non-existent lawyer and used in context of spammers threatening the anti-spam community. See also Barratry
Crawl - To retrieve a webpage along with the hyperlinks that reference it. Basically, it is what the Spider does to the Web
CU or CYA - See You (later)
CYA - Cover Your Ass
Cyber (prefix) - A term used to connect the subsequent word loosely to the world of computers or the Internet or sex over a computer
Cyberspace - virtual reality, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other kinds of computer systems. Science fiction author William Gibson coined the term in his novel Neuromancer. Gibson used the word to describe a virtual world of computer networks that his cyberpunk heroes 'jacked into'.
D
E
EOL - End Of Line
EOF - End Of File
F
F2F - Face To Face (that is, "in real life")
FFS - For Fuck's Sake
Flamer - Someone who writes inflammatory, provoking or argumentative comments, also known as an Internet troll
FOAF - Friend Of A Friend
FTW/FTL - For The Win/Loss/Lose. Used to express enjoyment or derision. Mistaken for Fuck The World which is used as common biker terminology. Also used to express agreement (see QFT) or disagreement
FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair (from military slang; pronounced "foo-bar")
FUD - "fear, uncertainty, and doubt" (the purposeful spread of misinformation)
FWIW - For What It's Worth
FYI - For Your Information
G
Godwin's Law - Dictates that the longer a thread, the more likely someone will post a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler
GMTA - Great Minds Think Alike
GTG or G2G - Got To Go and Good To Go
H
HAND - Have A Nice Day
Handle - Name used in online chat, (AKA nick(name), alias, screen/user name)
Hit - A request made to the web server, (noun) the results of an internet search, (verb) loading a Web page. Hits are not equivalent to visitors of a webpage.
Home - The website's introduction page, starting point, and guide. The technical term is "index"
Hot List - A collection of publicly available URLS (World Wide Web site addresses), sometimes available as text files. This term is not to be confused with Favorites
HTH - Hope This/That Helps
Haxxor - Slang term used to describe one who uses modified (sometimes "hacked") content to beat other players. Also as h4x0r (written in ASCII) in Leet.
I
IANAL - I Am Not A Lawyer
IAWTC - I Agree With This Comment
IDC- I don't care.
IDK - I Don't Know
IIRC - If I Recall/Remember Correctly
IM - Instant Messaging using a variety of networking software or cell phone hardware/software
IMO - In My Opinion; IMHO In My Humble Opinion; (sometimes 'Honest'); IMNSHO In My Not So Humble Opinion
IMNSHO - In My Not So Humble Opinion
Information Superhighway - The Internet (AKA: I-way, infobahn), originated from an Al Gore Speech
IOW - In Other Words
IRC - Internet Relay Chat
IRL - In Real Life
Is made of X and Y - Indicates the speaker's opinion of a particular person place and thing. Suffixing "is made of" with positive things (usually "win and awesome") indicates a positive opinion, negative things (usually "ass and poo") indicates a negative opinion (though the former can be used in an ironic sense).
IYKWIM - If You Know What I Mean
J
Jaggy - aliased computer graphics
JK or j/k - Just Kidding
K
K - Okay
L
L2P - Learn to play. Computer game equivalent of RTFM
Lag - Slang term for slow Internet speeds or high Internet latency; Lag is sometimes due to a server problem, but more frequently due to the connection between client and server. A slow or intermittent connection may often be referred to as laggy
Lamer - A know-nothing, one who is lame
Leet - Often spelled as l33t or l337 in ASCII form. It originally meant elite. At first it was used sincerely by hackers, then later by bragging pretenders (e.g. "using his l33t hacker skills"). Nowadays it is often used in online gaming and on Internet message boards by lamers trying to fit in (see above)
LOL - Laughing Out Loud, Laugh Out Loud, or Lots Of Laughter
LMAO - Laugh My Ass Off. A variation of the above with many variations and additional letters in the acronym
LMK - Let Me Know
Lurker - Someone who frequents a message board without participating in discussions
M
Mactel - Macintosh based on Intel Processor
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
MOTD - Message Of The Day
MUD - "Multi-User Dungeon"
MUSH - "Multi-User Shared Habitat"
MYOB - Mind Your Own Business
N
Newbie, newb, Noob, n00b- An inexperienced user of a system or game. Short for a new beginner, or novice
NIFOC - Naked In Front Of Computer
NM - (Sometimes written N/M) No Message or No More. Used in internet forums or emails to indicate that everything is already said in the subject line. NM is also an internet slang for Not Much
NVM or NVMD – Never mind
NP (1) - No Problem
O
O RLY - Oh Really?
OIC - Oh, I See OP - Operator / Moderator (also SysOp); also Original Poster
OS - Operating System
OTOH - On The Other Hand
OTW - On The Way
OMG or OMFG - Oh My God, Oh My Fucking God, Oh My Goodness, or Oh My Fucking Goodness
OMW - On My Way
P
P2P - peer-to-peer, person-to-person, player-to-player, programmer-to-programmer, pay-to-play
PEBKAC/PEBCAK - Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.
Ping - Are you there?
PITA - Pain In The Ass
PLMK - Please Let Me Know
PM - Personal/Private Message
PST - Please Send Tell, used on City of Heroes
PWN/PWNED - A typo-deliberate version of "own or owned (past tense)," a slang term often used to express superiority over others.
Q
QFT - Quit Fucking Talking
R
Rehi (or merely re) - Hello again
RL - Real Life
RO(T)FL - Rolling On (The) Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO - Rolling On Floor Laughing My Ass Off
RSN - Real Soon Now (used sarcastically)
RTFM - Read The Fucking Manual
S
SCNR - Sorry, Could Not Resist
Smiley - emoticon
SNAFU - Situation normal, all fucked up (from military slang)
Snail Mail - Normal paper mail service
Spider - The program behind a search engine
SPAM - Stupid Pointless Annoying Message
STFU - Shut The Fuck Up
T
TBH - To Be Honest
TH(N)X or TNX - Thanks
TIA - Thanks In Advance
TINC - There Is No Cabal, a term discouraging conspiracy theories
TLDR - Too Long, Didn't Read
TOS - Terms Of Service
Troller- A member of an "opposing" forum who joins the other to spam and flame users for being members.
TTBOMK - To The Best Of My Knowledge
TTFN - Ta Ta For Now
TTYL - Talk To You Later
Tweeddler - Computer geek or someone who plays with themselves at the
computer
TYT - Take Your Time
TY - Thank You
TYVM - Thank You Very Much
U
U - You
V
W
W/ or W/o - with or without + VC: Voice Chat
W/E - whatever most commonly used mostly to add emphasis to a situation.
W8 - Wait (w + eight)
WB - Welcome Back
WTH - What The Heck/Hell?!
WTF - What The Fuck, Freak!
WOMBAT - Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time
WRT - With Respect/Regards To
WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get
Y
Z
ZOMG - An escalated way to say "Oh My God" (see OMG) referring to the proximity of the 'z' key to the 'shift' key and the resulting possible type.