Texting acronyms: smh, istg, wdym, ngl and more
Texting acronyms are the short letter groups people type instead of whole phrases: smh, istg, wdym, ngl. They save a few taps, and they also carry a tone that the full phrase doesn’t. “Not gonna lie” sounds serious. “ngl” sounds casual.
Here’s what the common ones mean, how they’re used, and which ones can come across as rude.
The ones people search for most
| Acronym | Stands for | How it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| smh | shaking my head | disappointment: “he forgot his own birthday smh” |
| istg | I swear to God | frustration or a promise: “istg if you spoil the ending” |
| wdym | what do you mean | asking someone to explain: “wdym the test is today??“ |
| ngl | not gonna lie | softening an honest opinion: “ngl I liked the first one better” |
| iykyk | if you know, you know | an inside joke: “that one teacher’s pop quizzes, iykyk” |
| fr | for real | agreeing, or saying you mean it: “fr, best day ever” |
| ong | on God (I promise) | “ong I was there on time” |
| tbh | to be honest | ”tbh I didn’t read the chapter” |
| idk | I don’t know | ”idk what to eat” |
| rn | right now | ”can’t talk rn” |
More texting acronyms
| Acronym | Stands for | How it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| wyd | what (are) you doing | ”wyd this weekend?“ |
| hbu | how about you | ”I’m good, hbu?“ |
| icl | I can’t lie | like ngl: “icl that was impressive” |
| pov | point of view | the setup for a scene: “pov: the wifi just died” |
| irl | in real life | ”we’ve never met irl” |
| ikr | I know, right | agreeing hard: “that was so long” “ikr” |
| imo / imho | in my (humble) opinion | ”imo the book was better” |
| fyi | for your information | ”fyi the shop closes at five” |
| tbf | to be fair | ”tbf he did say sorry” |
| nvm | never mind | ”nvm, found it” |
| lmk | let me know | ”lmk if you need a ride” |
| brb | be right back | ”brb, dinner” |
| ttyl | talk to you later | ”ttyl!“ |
| omw | on my way | ”omw, 5 mins” |
| hmu | hit me up (message me) | “hmu when you’re free” |
| ofc | of course | ”ofc I’ll come” |
| np | no problem | ”thanks!” “np” |
| ty | thank you | ”ty for the notes” |
| gg | good game | ”gg, you won fair” |
| fomo | fear of missing out | ”everyone’s at the party, major fomo” |
| tmi | too much information | ”tmi, I didn’t need to know that” |
| dm | direct message | ”dm me the link” |
| lol | laughing out loud | now mostly just “that’s funny” |
| bffr | be for real | ”you think that was fair? bffr” |
Is it rude?
Most acronyms are neutral, but a few depend a lot on tone:
- wdym can sound like a challenge, depending on the rest of the message. “wdym?” alone can read as “explain yourself”. “wait wdym, I’m confused” reads as friendly.
- smh is disapproving by design. Fine between friends, sharp if aimed at someone.
- k (just the letter) is famous for sounding cold. “okay” or “ok!” is warmer.
- idc (I don’t care) usually lands as rude, even when you meant “either is fine”.
- ALL CAPS turns almost anything into shouting, or excitement.
Lowercase is the normal way to type all of these. Capitals usually make them louder, not more polite.
These are the words that last
New slang often fades within a year. Searches for what six seven means fell by 98% after its peak. Texting acronyms don’t behave like that. Over the same year, US searches for what istg means rose from 27,100 to 33,100 a month, wdym from 22,200 to 27,100, and ngl from 18,100 to 22,200. iykyk held steady at 14,800. (Source: DataForSEO, US Google searches, September 2025 vs August 2026.)
Acronyms stick because they do a job: they save typing. The meme words don’t. More on that in Gen Alpha slang, and the bigger list of spoken slang is in Gen Z slang.
Can you read a whole sentence of it?
Acronyms get tricky when they stack: “fr ngl that movie was mid”. Yapology is a word game built on exactly that. It hides a phrase written in slang, and you guess it one letter at a time. Here’s a tip that helps: acronyms like wdym, smh and ngl have no vowels, so don’t spend every guess on A, E, I, O and U.