In this modern-day of internet and activities in social media, the concept of casual conversation has changed quite a lot. Even in real-life, languages have always been segregated into two major parts – formal and informal. We use the formal tone of the language to speak with any of our work colleagues, in meetings, with our bosses, or any official work conversations. With our friends, acquaintances, and family, however, we prefer to speak in a more informal way of the language. This is because it feels easier and more comfortable to talk in a tone of the language that was solely initiated for heaving a hearty conversation.
With such distinction in the tone of the language going on for quite some time, the internet and the online social media accounts have contributed even further to the invention of new and easier languages that are comparatively easy to express. The start of texting in mobile phones was a revolutionary point in the formation of such short expressions and abbreviations, and even emails exchanged among friends started containing these short terms. If one was unfamiliar with it, it became quite challenging to understand what a particular sentence meant by seeing it at a glance. At present, the young generation is very much accustomed to using various social media accounts and spends most of their time online. As a result, they have developed the knowledge if such short terms and acronyms at a much fast rate. They are even contributing to the formation of such new abbreviations.
All of these forms are what we call the texting languages or the slang words of the internet. With their usage, long words or even some sentences can be expressed in just a few words. They are highly convenient to use once you are used to using them. A lot of the short forms are more popular than others and are found almost everywhere online. There are a thousand of such words, and one cannot keep track of all of them, as they are increasing day by day as well. However, even then, some short forms are used more than the others, as the users find them more appealing. One such acronym is LMAO.
Be it a message or a text, chats, instant messages, Twitter and Facebook posts, or Instagram and WhatsApp stories, the term Lmao is one of the most commonly used short forms that is being used. For the older generation who are not accustomed to seeing such short forms, they are bound to think what does lmao meaning? Is it even a real word? Or is it the initials of someone famous? Even those who come to know about one meaning of lmao, get utterly confused when they see lmao being used with a different meaning. This is because the term lmao can have more than one meaning, as well.
So, if you are not sure what LMAO means, or are confused regarding its usage correctly, read on to know about it in detail, along with other such short forms and abbreviations as well.
The short term or acronym LMAO stands for “Laughing My Ass Off.” This is strictly an informal language, and people often text this and sometimes even say this out loud, to express they are feeling funny or amused regarding an incident or news. In texts and online conversations, Lmao is solely used to show how amused someone is feeling in response to a particular incident o situation. The term lmao is even used in various other modified acronyms, which means the same thing but increases the intensity of the expression. For example, if someone is facing a situation that they consider to be extremely funny, they can even use the term LMFAO. This is almost equal to LMAO but has an additional ‘F’ in it. The term LMFAO means “Laughing My F**king Ass Off.”
This term LMFAO, is often considered to be vulgar by many because of its inclusion of the F-word. However, as said, it is used solely on informal conversations and among friends. So, as long as the other person is not getting offended by the usage of this acronym, you are fine to use it.
Another similar acronym that is used much like LMAO is ROFL. ROFL stands for “Roll on the floor laughing” or “Rolling on the floor laughing.” It is often used as an alternative of LMAO as it is also used to express a funny or amusing situation. Many people even use the terms LMAO and ROFL in combination, like ROFLMAO. This is used to denote extreme amusement over something.
Acronyms similar to LMAO
There are many other acronyms and short forms that have a similar meaning with LMAO and are used as an alternative, or are modified from LMAO, or are used in combination. Some of the widely used popular acronyms that are used to express similar feelings are given below. All of these acronyms are used for expressing laughter in online expression.
LOL – It means “Laughing Out Loud.”
LOLZ – It is used to denote more than one laugh.
ROFL – It means “Rolling/Roll on the floor laughing.”
LQTM – It stands for “Laughing Quietly To Myself.”
LSMH – It is used to denote “Laughing and shaking my head.”
LMHO – It means “Laughing my head off.”
HAHA – This is a universal expression of laughter.
“: D” – This is an emoji for laughter.
What Are The Alternate Meanings Of LMAO And How Else It Can Be Used?
As stated previously, the short term LMAO has many meanings, and it can be used in more than one way. As the situations turn out, the acronym lmao can be used by the context. However, even then, the base meaning of lmao does not change. That is, it is used to express amusement or a funny situation in all cases. As in the majority of cases, lmao is used to show the funny sentiment, either amusingly or sarcastically. So, if you are entirely unaware of the term Lmao, you should know about the alternate meanings to avoid confusion in the future.
Given below are some of the alternate meanings of Lmao that you can use in different contexts as well. It is to be kept mind that the other person should also be aware of the exact meaning that you refer to while using Lmao. If there is any confusion with the meaning, then it can be downright offensive to the other person is some cases. Therefore, make sure that the meaning is clear. If you are talking with a close friend, it generally becomes more comfortable to communicate with such short terms without having to fear to offend the other person.
Some of the other meanings of LMAO are
- Laughing my arms/ankles off.
- Leave me alone, okay?
- Let’s make an offer/oath.
- Lick me all over!
- Let’s meet at the office or Last man at the office.
Additionally, there is also a common phrase famous on Tumblr, which is known as ayy Lmao. Generally, any reference of ayy lmao leads to aliens. As a funny expression, the extraterrestrials are supposedly uttering “Ayy Lmao” randomly. The phrase has no real meaning to add an event of amusement to it. Since it is supposed to be a word uttered by aliens, humans cannot possibly understand what aliens mean when they speak, “Ayy Lmao!”
Some Other Abbreviations, Acronyms and Internet Chat and Text Terms
Given below are some of the other popular short terms that are used all over the internet, along with their proper meaning.
AAMOF – It means “As a matter of fact.”
AFAIK – It stands for “As far as I know.”
AFK – It denotes “Away from keyboard.”
BC or B/C – It means “because.”
BFF – It denotes “Best friends forever.”
BRB – It means “Be right back.”
BTT – It stands for “Back to the topic.”
BTW – It denotes “By the way.”
CYA – It means either “See you” or “Cover your ass.”
DIY – It stands for “Do it yourself.”
EOD – It means “End of discussion.”
FWIW – It denotes “For what it’s worth.”
FYEO or 4YEO – It means “For your eyes only.”
GR8 – It stands for “Great.”
IDK – It means “I don’t know.”
IMO or IMHO – It denotes “In my humble/honest opinion.”
IRL – It means “In real life.”
JK – It stands for “Just kidding.”
L8R – It is a short form for “Later.”
LOL – It means “Laugh/Laughing out loud.”
NOOB – it is generally used to denote a “Newcomer” or a “Newbie.”
NOYB – It means “None of your business.”
NP – It denotes “No problem.”
OMG – It is used for the expression, “Oh my God.”
OT – It denotes “Off-topic.”
OTOH – It means “On the other hand.”
RTM or RTFM – It is used to denote “Read the ‘effing’ or ‘F’ing manual.”
TIA – It stands for “Thanks in advance.”
TMI – It means “Too much information.”
TTYL – It is used to express “Talk to you later.”
WTF – It means “What the f***.”
DL – It is used to denote “Down low.”
ATM – This means, “At the moment.”
TY – It is a short form for the expression “Thank you.”
SMH – It is used to denote “Shaking/Shake my head.”
All of these are popular short forms that are used widely in internet conversations and posts.
Difference between Netspeak and Leetspeak
The short terms like LMAO, LOL, and LMFAO are the ones that fall under the category of netspeak, which is also widely known as chatspeak to many. If you are an active user of the popular social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you will see multiple posts filled with such acronyms. Even on random conversations, such terms are used nowadays more than ever. However, the existence of these short terms was long before the start of the social media platforms.
Another expressing term language which is related to netspeak, known as leetspeak, was developed. The hackers mainly created this leetspeak, and they used these terms to go past the email filters. In leetspeak, the words and letters are substituted with different letters or numbers that have a similar appearance with the initial letter replaced. For example, the number 2 is used for replacing the letter T, the number 3 is used for replacing the letter E, and the number 0 is used to replace the letter O. In some of the words, the spelling may also be changed slightly. The term “leet” is expressed as 1337 in leetspeak.
With its usage, the popularity grew, and at present, many people apart from the hackers, use leetspeak quite frequently. However, the popularity of leetspeak is yet to reach the level of netspeak. As of now, the people who like to speak n code languages, online gamers, programmers, forum posters, and hackers as well, are the users of leetspeak.
Some examples of leetspeak are given below-
ski11z – It is used for denoting “skills.”
1337 – This indicates the term “leet.”
Haxxor – This term means “Hacker.”
N00b – This is used to say someone is a “Noob” or a newcomer who doesn’t have a lot of experience.
All of the leetspeak terms are starting to become more and more popular.
Proper Usage of LMAO
By now, you should probably know what exactly Lmao mean. But, if you are still having doubts over its usage, a detailed explanation is given below, along with multiple examples.
Lmao is strictly an informal term, and therefore, should be avoided while having a formal conversation. It is to be used mainly in social media platforms, over the internet, and on texting with friends. There is no rule for the spelling of Lmao either; it can be written in all uppercase letters, in all lowercase letters, or a combination of both. Generally, the first letter is kept capital, and the rest are kept small. Full caps and extended ‘O’ like “Lmaoo” can be used as well to show a higher level of amusement.
Some of the examples of using lmao include-
- “The kitten is so funny! LMAO!”
- “That joke regarding the fall in the balcony was hilarious, lmao!”
- “Every time I hear something funny or sarcastic, I lmao.”
- “Lmao, don’t even talk about it.”
These examples can help you understand how to use the term Lmao properly.
