Texting acronyms and abbreviations every parent should know

Not so long ago the concept of sending a text from a phone probably didn’t even cross our minds. These days it’s a common way of communicating for teenagers.

To save time teens use acronyms and abbreviations rather than spelling out words.

Here are 51 abbreviations every parent should know:

459 — I love you
2moro – Tomorrow
2nite – Tonight
ADR — Address
GR8 – Great
BROKEN — hung over
IMHO – In My Humble Opinion
9 — Parent watching
ROTFLMAO – Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off
CD9 — Code 9 – it means parents are around
99 — Parent gone
BRB – Be Right Back
143 –I love you
ILY – I Love You
B4N – Bye For Now
420 — Marijuana
SITD – Still In The Dark
53X — Sex
F2F — Face-to-Face
DILLIGAS – Do I Look Like I Give A Sh**
BFF – Best Friends Forever -or- Best Friend’s Funeral
WTTP – Want to trade pictures?
LOL – Laughing Out Loud -or- Lots Of Love -or- Living On Lipitor
GYPO – Get your pants off
LYLAS – Love You Like A Sister
LMAO – Laughing My Ass Off
TWD – Texting while driving
DBEYR – Don’t Believe Everything You Read
KPC – Keeping parents clueless commonly used
L8R – Later
IPN – I’m posting naked
8 – Oral sex
TMI – Too Much Information
BCNU – Be Seeing You
DOC – Drug of choice
IRL – In Real Life
STBY – Sucks To Be You
ASL — Age/Sex/Location
SWAK – Sealed (or Sent) With A Kiss
CYA – Cover Your Ass -or- See Ya
NP – No Problem -or- Nosy Parents
GNOC — Get Naked On Cam
RBTL – Read Between The Lines
OIC – Oh, I See
OT – Off Topic
1174 — the meeting place, meet at
WYWH – Wish You Were Here
J/K – Just Kidding
IWSN — I Want Sex Now
TYVM – Thank You Very Much
TTYL – Talk To You Later -or- Type To You Later

Have we missed any? Please SHARE below any others you may know of.

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67 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 09 Apr 2022
    10:07 am
wow….I knew some of these but there certainly is a bunch that i had never heard of.

- - ella12 said
  - 20 Jun 2017
    2:42 pm
Oh gosh, I don’t know half of these.

- - mom178387 said
  - 30 Mar 2016
    4:32 pm
As a millennial, I can assure you ladies that only about 10% of the abbreviations on that list are actually used in common texting language amongst young people. And of those 10%, only about half have been translated correctly here. I’ve gotta say, coming from a young person who has never heard of or used 90% of the lingo on there, this list is genuinely hilarious.

- - coastalkaryn said
  - 28 Feb 2016
    12:37 pm
far out – kids know and do way too much!!!

- - mom71820 said
  - 28 Feb 2016
    9:15 am
Wow… So many to learn

- - KrysGrace said
  - 21 Feb 2016
    4:15 pm
Handy to know

- - welshmummy said
  - 03 Feb 2016
    1:13 pm
Didn’t know half of these. Learn something new everyday.

- - mom165744 said
  - 29 Jan 2016
    6:20 pm
What a list!

- - mom100085 said
  - 29 Jan 2016
    5:48 pm
oh wow. The list has grown.

- - risshabear said
  - 22 Jan 2016
    2:53 pm
Majority of these were new for me and I was born in the 90s. gotta be careful these days alot of those abbreviations were a bit shocking.

- - mamavon said
  - 07 Jan 2016
    1:02 pm
A lot of them is fairly logical but the numbers one I just don’t get.

- - rachelvk said
  - 22 Dec 2015
    4:54 am
Oh goodness… it’s like a whole new language!

- - Nas01 said
  - 06 Dec 2015
    2:21 pm
Thank god my kids are still 6 and under. Tempted to print this and keep for future reference.

- - klfarrug said
  - 01 Dec 2015
    10:56 pm
What is even more scary, than the number of acronyms they use, is when kids put these acronyms into assignments / homework / writing their resume etc.

- - mom93821 said
  - 28 Nov 2015
    8:51 pm
The list just keeps on growing – hard to remember all of them.

- - paulah2 said
  - 18 Nov 2015
    5:08 pm
Wow, that’s just confirmed that I’m a texting NUMPTY!!! Printing this out and putting it on my fridge

- - mom160421 said
  - 16 Nov 2015
    1:35 pm
I didn’t know at least half of these, and it makes me worry about what kids get up to.

- - mom165081 said
  - 10 Nov 2015
    5:12 pm
Knew some of these – but far from all!!! What age ages are using these?

- - mish06 said
  - 06 Nov 2015
    11:25 pm
OMG I can’t believe how may I didn’t know. Luckily I have a have a bit of time to learn them (and the new ones to come)

- - mom81879 said
  - 30 Sep 2015
    1:35 pm
No point learning these as there’s new ones to add just about every day