What does TL;DR mean? Popular social media slang explained

While browsing your For You Page on TikTok or reading threads on Reddit, you might have come across the widely-used acronym ‘TL;DR.’ Despite its popularity, not everyone knows what it means.

Social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit often see new slang and abbreviations emerge and spread quickly among their millions of users, contributing to the platforms’ lively and engaging nature.

Whether you’re a new or avid user of any social media platform, familiarizing yourself with the terms and acronyms used by the community can make it easier to connect with others.

TL;DR, also written in lowercase, is a common term that often appears on Reddit posts, but has also made common appearances on other social media apps, such as TikTok and Instagram. However, despite it being widely used across multiple platforms, some users are still confused as to what it means.

If you’ve ever seen someone use this term in a Reddit post, or a caption or comment on any other social media platform, here’s everything you need to know about what it means.

What does TL;DR stand for?

TL;DR, also sometimes seen without the semicolon as TLDR, is an abbreviation that stands for “too long; didn’t read”. The abbreviation is often used when someone quickly summarizes the content of a long post.

For example, if someone posts a story on Reddit or TikTok, they can write out TL;DR and quickly summarize the content and the most important parts in case someone doesn’t have the time to read the whole thing themselves. This way, they can still participate in the conversation about the topic discussed.

Users can also comment TL;DR themselves to signify they haven’t read or watched the video they’re commenting on, but that they still want to comment on the topic or something regarding the post.

If you’re struggling to understand some of the most used words on social media, such as ‘mid,’ or ‘BFFR,’ then you can check out our slang guide here.