Someone in the newsroom this morning asked, "hey, what's MT mean on Twitter?" That got us thinking it might be useful to compile a list of common Twitter abbreviations. Here is what we've come up with so far.

It's hardly exhaustive, so please add abbreviations we should include in the comments.


Technical Twitter abbreviations:

  • MT = Modified tweet. This means the tweet you're looking at is a paraphrase of a tweet originally written by someone else
  • RT = Retweet. The tweet you're looking at was forwarded to you by another user
  • DM = Direct message. A direct-message is a message only you and the person who sent it can read. Important: To DM someone all you need to type is D username message
  • PRT = Partial retweet. The tweet you're looking at is the truncated version of someone else's tweet
  • HT = Hat tip. This is a way of attributing a link to another Twitter user
  • CC = Carbon-copy. Works the same way as email


Conversational abbreviations:

  • IMHO = In my humble opinion
  • AYFKMWTS = Are you f—-ing kidding me with this s—-?
  • GTFOOH = Get the f—- out of here
  • OH = Overheard
  • FW = No f—-ing way
  • IRL = In real life
  • NSFW = Not safe for work
  • FML = F—- my life
  • FWIW = For what it's worth
  • QOTD = quote of the day
  • BTW = By the way
  • BFN = Bye for now
  • AFAIK = As far as I know
  • TY = Thank you
  • YW = You're welcome

We miss any big ones? Please let us know in the comments below.

Republished with permission from BusinessInsider.com. Authored by Nicholas Carlson. Illustration via Darryl Brown.