chatspeak

chatspeak noun: the blend of informal language, conventional abbreviations and emoticons typical of chatrooms.

Noun

chatspeak (uncountable)

(Internet, informal) The blend of informal language, conventional abbreviations and emoticons typical of chatrooms.
- Given that people are trying to speak by writing in real time, chatspeak is infused with extensive abbreviations and there is little punctuation.2001, Edward Castronova, “Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier”, in CESifo Working Papers, 618, p. 13
- Our students are using Internet shorthand or chatspeak in their online yakking in chat rooms and e-mails.2002, Ronald A. Berk, Humor as an instructional defibrillator: evidence-based techniques in teaching and assessment, Stylus, page 140

I don't mind saying 'u' instead of 'you' so much, mostly because I've become numb to it, and some people do it because it's 'cool' to speak chatspeak.2004, “Hello, All (who ever that is)”, in Smite the illiterate:
Is it too much to imagine a Bible written entirely in the language of tomorrow: Internet chatspeak and text message shorthand?2008, Tom Breen, The Messiah formerly known as Jesus : dispatches from the intersection of Christianity and pop culture, Baylor University...

From chat + -speak.

What does chatspeak mean?: Chatspeak means the blend of informal language, conventional abbreviations and emoticons typical of chatrooms.
How do you use chatspeak in a sentence?: I don't mind saying 'u' instead of 'you' so much, mostly because I've become numb to it, and some people do it because it's 'cool' to speak chatspeak.
What part of speech is chatspeak?: Chatspeak is a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: chatspeak (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “chatspeak.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chatspeak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.