Word.ws English Dictionary

netspeak

netspeak noun: an informal form of written language used on the Internet, characterized by abbreviations and emoticons.

Noun

netspeak (uncountable)

  1. An informal form of written language used on the Internet, characterized by abbreviations and emoticons.
    • So, the point of this discussion is not just about the value of proofreading or the intrusion of netspeak—it's about the mistake of not understanding their impact on our ability to communicate with the customer.2010, Ralph W. Crosby, It’s The Customer, Stupid!

Origin of netspeak

From net + -speak, coined by British linguist David Crystal in 2001 who originally wrote it capitalized as "Netspeak".

Questions about netspeak

What does netspeak mean?
Netspeak means an informal form of written language used on the Internet, characterized by abbreviations and emoticons.
What part of speech is netspeak?
Netspeak is a noun.

Words near netspeak in the dictionary

  1. netslang
  2. netsman
  3. netsmen
  4. netspace
  5. netspaces
  6. netspeak
  7. netspinning
  8. netspinning caddisfly
  9. netsplit
  10. netsplits
  11. netsplitted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: netspeak (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.

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