Online chat has its own compressed language, and nobody hands you a dictionary on the way in. If you have ever stared at “wyd hbu” and quietly panicked, this is that dictionary.
The absolute basics
These four make up a huge share of everything typed in a random chat.
- ASL — age, sex, location. The oldest opener on the internet. Usually a sign the person is sorting rather than chatting, and you are under no obligation to answer.
- WYD — what you doing. A general-purpose opener and also a general-purpose filler when a conversation stalls.
- HRU — how are you. Occasionally HYD (how you doing).
- HBU / WBU — how about you / what about you. The polite return of serve.
Reactions and filler
- LOL / LMAO / LMFAO — escalating degrees of laughing. LOL is now closer to a comma than actual laughter.
- IKR — I know, right.
- FR / FRFR — for real. Used for agreement or to press someone on whether they are serious.
- NGL — not gonna lie.
- TBH — to be honest.
- IMO / IMHO — in my opinion / in my humble opinion.
- IDK / IDC — I do not know / I do not care.
- NVM — never mind.
- SMH — shaking my head. Disapproval or disbelief.
- ISTG — I swear to god. Emphasis, usually mock-exasperated.
Newer internet vocabulary
This is the layer that changes fastest, and the one most likely to leave you behind.
- IYKYK — if you know, you know. A wink at shared context.
- MID — mediocre. A dismissal.
- BUSSIN — genuinely very good, usually about food.
- NPC — someone acting without independent thought, from video-game background characters.
- RATIO — being out-engaged by a reply; broadly, being publicly out-argued.
- COOKED — finished, done for, in trouble. “I have an exam tomorrow, I am cooked.”
- GLAZING — praising someone excessively.
- DELULU — delusional, usually affectionately and about oneself.
- RIZZ — charisma, specifically the flirting kind.
- SUS — suspicious.
Logistics and leaving
- BRB — be right back.
- GTG / G2G — got to go.
- AFK — away from keyboard.
- TTYL — talk to you later. In a random chat this is mostly a polite fiction, since you will not talk again.
- WB — welcome back.
- N8 / GN — night / good night.
Terms worth treating as a warning
Some abbreviations are not just vocabulary — they tell you what the other person is here for. You do not need to be shocked by any of them, but you should recognise them.
- DTF, NSFW, 18+? as an opener — the person is looking for sexual content. On a moderated platform, report and move on.
- “S2R” / “send to receive” — a request to trade images. Never do this with a stranger; it is the entry point for most sextortion attempts.
- “kik?” / “snap?” / “tg?” — a push to move you to another app. Sometimes innocent, very often not: scammers want you somewhere with no moderation and no report button. Our safety guide covers why this is the single most common scam pattern.
Where this language came from
Most of these abbreviations are older than the people using them. ASL, BRB, LOL and AFK come from 1990s IRC channels and instant messengers, where every character cost typing time and conversations moved fast. They survived the jump to SMS, then to social media, then to chat apps, largely unchanged.
The newer layer — mid, bussin, delulu, cooked — arrives from a different pipeline: short-form video and group chats, where slang spreads globally in weeks rather than years. This is why the vocabulary now turns over much faster than it used to, and why terms can feel dated within a year of appearing.
Worth knowing: a lot of current internet slang originates in African American Vernacular English and in drag and ballroom culture, and reaches the mainstream through social platforms long after it was in ordinary use elsewhere. Knowing that is not required to use the words, but it explains why so much of the vocabulary appears suddenly and fully formed.
Regional differences worth knowing
Random chat is global, so you will meet abbreviations that are not universal.
- WYD and HBU are near-universal in English chat.
- Bruv, innit, peng — British. Bet as agreement is American. Mate spans several countries with slightly different weight.
- Bhai, yaar, kya appear constantly in Indian English chat and are often mixed straight into English sentences.
- Kek instead of lol comes from gaming communities; w and l (win and loss) come from streaming chat.
If you do not recognise something, asking is completely normal and usually gets a friendly answer. “What does that mean?” has never once ended a conversation.
Do you need to use any of this?
No. Typing in full sentences is not a social failure, and plenty of people find it a relief. The reason to learn the vocabulary is comprehension, not performance — you want to understand “ngl that is mid” without having to ask, and then reply however you normally would.
One genuine tip: matching the other person’s register makes conversations flow better. If they are typing in lowercase fragments, full formal paragraphs will feel like a different conversation. If they are writing properly, mirroring that works too.
Want the searchable version with every term on its own page? We keep it at the slang dictionary. Or just start a chat and learn by immersion, which is honestly faster.