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Shortcuts on the Internet – All about LOL, IMHO and LMAO

LOL, OMG, BTW: The Internet speaks its own language - and that consists largely of chat abbreviations, which often arise from English phrases. As a user of forums and messenger apps, you should know Internet abbreviations.

The internet and social networks aren't quick and short enough - they're full of abbreviations. LOL and OMG are just a few well-known sentence abbreviations that are commonly used. Anyone who moves on the Internet should know the most common abbreviations.

Formal and informal: Abbreviations are established everywhere

Chat abbreviations are not only used in informal exchanges among friends. Even in serious chats and messages, the short words are finding more and more friends. Almost a classic is now BTW, short for "by the way". The German equivalent of BTW - "By the way/by the way" - is only five letters longer, but is being pushed out more and more in chats.

Examples of chat abbreviations that you will definitely come across sooner or later are:

• FYI: "For your information"
• ASAP: "As soon as possible"
• FAQ: "Frequently asked questions"
• IMHO: "In my humble opinion"
• AFAIK: "As far as I know"
• AFK: "Away from keyboard"
• IDK: "I don't know"
• TBH: "To be honest"
• TMI: "Too much information".
• TL;DR: "Too long; didn't read”
• NVM: "Nevermind" (Forget it)
• GTG: "Got to go"
• ZIP: "Please"
• IRL: "In real life"
• YOLO: "You only live once"
• GG: "Good Game"
• PPL: "People"
• IMO: "In my opinion"
• BRB: "Be right back"
• TBH: "To be honest"
• THX: "Thanks"

Classic in chat, but on offline: OMG and WTF

The chat abbreviations OMG and WTF are now being used more and more frequently – not only on the internet and on smartphones, but also in direct spoken conversations. With these Internet abbreviations, users express their astonishment and astonishment.

• OMGis short for "Oh my God". The acronym is used when something embarrassing or scandalous has happened to someone and the chatter or speaker wants to put the feeling into words.
• WTFis one of the harder chat abbreviations and means "What the fuck?" A suitable German translation would be "What the hell?".
• LOLis short for "laughing out loud"; The Duden translates this sequence of words as “laughing out loud”. There are numerous variations, for example if LOL is written in lower case lol, it can mean that the chatter didn't have to laugh quite so loudly and wanted to signal that with it.
• ROFL, sometimes also used as ROTFL, but at first glance it is less recognizable as a laughing matter. The abbreviation stands for "rolling on the floor laughing"; the chatter laughs so hard in a figurative sense and literally rolls on the floor laughing.
• The somewhat more vulgar abbreviation LMAOmeans "laughing my ass off". The user of this abbreviation laughs colloquially at the buttocks.

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What does "L" mean? That's what the abbreviation in chat stands for

Received an "L" while chatting and don't know what to reply? Are your group chats full of shortcuts like this? Don't panic, we'll tell you the meaning of "L" here.

It is not surprising that in today's increasingly fast-paced world, we don't want to spend too much time chatting. That's why we like to use acronyms, signs or puns, some of which are already firmly established. You've probably already read a few of them or used them yourself, such as "VG" (Best regards), "idk" ("I don't know") or "k/kk" (Ok). Social media such as Instagram, TikTok or Facebook in particular keep creating new abbreviations and it is difficult to keep track of things.

What does "L" mean in chat?

According to Urban Dictionary, "L" is most commonly used to mean "to lose" or "take a loss" when chatting . This meaning is also often used in sports by game commentators in connection with "W and L", i.e. "Win" (win) and "Loss" (loss). If you receive a message or a comment with an "L", this is not necessarily to be taken as an insult, but is often used when something embarrassing has happened to someone or you have made a faux pas with a statement. “Take a loss” therefore means that you should simply accept your loss, so to speak.

What can an "L" stand for in general?

The abbreviation "L" is used in many different areas, the most common spellings of which are:

1. "L" for "large", designation for a large international dress size
2. "L" as a roman numeral for 50
3. "l" for liters in recipes or on labels
4. "l" for left, "r" for right
5. "l" for the Latin language, usually with a dot "l."

More chat abbreviations with "L"

It's very common to say "Lol" ("Laughing out loud") and "LMAO" ("Laughing my ass off") when chatting or on social media in response to a funny video, photo, or used a comic story. German abbreviations such as "LD" (love you), "hdl" (love you) or "LG" (love) are also being used more and more often on WhatsApp. Even the "hat" smiley "^^" that stands for a smirking face can be extended with an "L" as a nose and illustrate the meaning more clearly: "^L^".

So don't rack your brains if you don't understand an abbreviation. Most of the time, they're only used when chatting or on social media, and you can quickly figure out what they mean by looking at the context. If you still don't know how to continue, we'll keep you up to date. Do you actually know what "having beef" means?