textspeak

textspeak

English

Etymology

    From text + -speak.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈtɛkst.spik/

    Noun

    textspeak (uncountable)

    1. (informal) The abbreviated, simplified form of language used in text messages, which often elides vowels and omits punctuation and capitalisation.
      Synonym: textese
      Hypernym: netspeak
      Coordinate terms: chatspeak, leetspeak
      • 2012 June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”, in The Guardian[1], London, archived from the original on 10 March 2016:
        For 40 years the society has championed good English – and hasn't been above the occasional criticism of the Queen's own standards of English – but it has finally conceded it cannot survive in the era of textspeak and Twitter.

    See also

    • Appendix:Glossary of textspeak
    • SMS