Nobody wants to be the person asking: what does lol mean? Or caught searching Google for the answer. But internet slang, unless you’re familiar with all the acronyms new and old, can be confusing as hell.

Browsing the internet and stalking social media is like swimming in a bowl of alphabetti spaghetti sometimes. It’s another language.

And sometimes it’s just too embarrassing to ask what someone means. Well, be shy no longer: here’s a simple list of some of the most popular internet slang acronyms being tossed around right now.

You’ll soon be a master of arguing on the internet — HTH.

lol

Laugh out loud

lmao / lmfao

Laugh my (f**king) ass off

rofl

Roll on the floor laughing

iirc

If I recall/remember correctly

ikr

I know, right?

wdyt

What do you think?

ICYMI

In case you missed it

jfc

Jesus f**king Christ

ffs

For f**ck’s sake

tl;dr

Too long, didn’t read

LRT

Last retweet (a reference for Twitter)

AFAIK

As far as I know

FWIW

For what it’s worth

btw

By the way

smh

Shake my head

ftr

For the record

imo / imho

In my (honest) opinion

noyb

None of your business

gtfo

Get the f**k out

OTOH

On the other hand

OP

Original poster/post

WRT

With regards to

mfw

My face when (usually accompanied by a gif or image)

TTYL

Talk to you later

TYVM

Thank you very much

HTH

Hope this helps

lmk

Let me know

wywtta

What you want to talk about?

Who invented lol?

If you’re interested, here’s the history behind lol from a guy called Wayne Pearson who claims to have invented it back in the 1980s:

“LOL was first coined on a BBS [bulletin board system] called Viewline in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in the early-to-mid-80s. A friend of mine who went by Sprout (and I believe he still does) had said something so funny in the teleconference room that I found myself truly laughing out loud, echoing off the walls of my kitchen. That’s when “LOL” was first used.”