tl;dr

UK/tiː ˌɛl diː ˈɑː//ti ˌɛl di ˈɑɹ/

tl;dr phrase: used to indicate that one did not read a (long) text.

Phrase (1)

tl;dr

(Internet, derogatory, usually) Used to indicate that one did not read a (long) text.
- tl;dr2002 December 21, Lenny Perkins, “My Thoughts on Metroid Prime (Long)”, in rec.games.video.nintendo (Usenet)
(Internet) Used to introduce a short summary of an overly long text.
- How I got to be an atheist is a fairly long and winding story, so I'll give you the "tl;dr" version—I was finally honest about myself that "the gods" just "weren't there."2016, Jeffrey Flagg, “The Care and Feeding of Your Atheist Pagan”, in John Halstead, editor, Godless Paganism: Voices of Non-theistic Pagans, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, part 10 (Looking...
- Incidentally, my absolutely favourite headline about the Duchess of Sussex's new coat of arms was: "Will Meghan Markle's new California-inspired coat of arms convince millennials to embrace traditional heraldry?" Tl;dr, no!2018 May 30, Hadley Freeman, “The meaning of beige tights: they show what the Windsors will do to Meghan”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC...
Synonyms:

BLUF, summary

Noun (1)

tl;dr (plural tl;drs or tl;dr's)

(Internet) A summary; the gist, the long and short.
- I know that was quite a long ramble, but the TL;DR is that I got fired.
Synonyms:

abridgment, abstract, bottom line, compendium, conspectus, digest, epitome, outline, overview, précis

Verb (1)

tl;dr (third-person singular simple present tl;dr's, present participle tl;dr'ing, simple past and past participle tl;dr'ed or tl;dr'd)

(Internet, transitive) To provide a short summary of (a text, an event, etc.); to summarize.
- Extracts or overviews should be substituted as needed. But insofar as possible, the whole books should be read. First of all, because many thinkers simply cannot be tl;dr'd. Second of all, because wrestling with, and immersing yourself in, and just reading through whole books is part of the...2014 June 17, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, “Here’s How to Teach the Liberal Arts to High Schoolers”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2024
- I'll tell you another thing that's ironic about the Vidal–Buckley [i.e., Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.] debates. Those debates can be TLDR'd into one of them calling the other "queer" as a pejorative and then the other calls the other a "fascist."2021 June 30, Makena Kelly, quoting Hasan Piker, “Hasan Piker on the Problem with YouTube Debate Culture: ‘Personally, I Think All of This is Just Bullshit’”, in The Verge, archived from the original...
(Internet, intransitive) To provide a short summary of a text, an event, etc.; to summarize.
- Some highlights of the lowlights: "A dismal mess," says the New York Times. Its "shabby aesthetic and narrative shortcomings are outweighed by its more drastically questionable moral ones," says the Guardian. "It's not a good movie," Entertainment Weekly TL;DRs.2018 June 16, Peter Kafka, “MoviePass Invested in ‘Gotti,’ the New John Travolta Mob Movie Everyone Hates”, in Vox, archived from the original on 02 Dec 2023
- Royal Bank of Canada’s economics team have tl;dr'd why JGBs and the yen have had a fun morning: "it will be hard for markets not to see this move as a precursor for tightening policy".2022 December 20, Louis Ashworth, “Turning Japanese?: One last rug pull before retirement”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Feb...

Phrase (2) capitalized: TL;DR

TL;DR

Alternative letter-case form of tl;dr.

Noun (2) capitalized: TL;DR

TL;DR (plural TL;DRs)

Alternative letter-case form of tl;dr.

Verb (2) capitalized: TL;DR

TL;DR (third-person singular simple present TL;DRs, present participle TL;DRing, simple past and past participle TL;DRed or TL;DR'd)

Alternative letter-case form of tl;dr.

Examples of tl;dr in a sentence

First of all, because many thinkers simply cannot be tl;dr'd.2014 June 17, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, “Here’s How to Teach the Liberal Arts to High Schoolers”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc....
Kyle [Richards] instantly begged her friend to TL;DR the "in-depth exposé," which she deemed "so friggin' long."2021 August 20, Amy Kaufman, “‘Ted Lasso’ wrote a love letter to romantic comedies. We break down ‘rom-communism’ [Catch up]”, in Los...

Synonyms of tl;dr

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of tl;dr

Forms of tl;dr

Phrase
alternative form	tldr
alternative form	tl/dr
alternative form	tl dr
alternative form	TLDR
alternative form	TL;DR
alternative form	TL/DR
alternative form	TLDNR
alternative form	TL/DNR
alternative form	TL-DNR
Noun
plural	tl;drs
plural	tl;dr's
plural	TL;DRs
Verb
third-person singular present	tl;dr's
present participle	tl;dr'ing
past participle	tl;dr'ed
past	tl;dr'ed
past participle	tl;dr'd
past	tl;dr'd
third-person singular present	TL;DRs
present participle	TL;DRing

Origin of tl;dr

The phrase is an initialism of too long; didn't read (or sometimes too long; don't read). The noun and verb are derived from the phrase.

Words that rhyme with tl;dr

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tl;dr

What does tl;dr mean?: Tl;dr means used to indicate that one did not read a (long) text.
How do you use tl;dr in a sentence?: First of all, because many thinkers simply cannot be tl;dr'd.
What part of speech is tl;dr?: Tl;dr can be a phrase, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tl;dr?: Tl;dr is pronounced /tiː ˌɛl diː ˈɑː/ (UK).

Words near tl;dr in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tl;dr (page history and authors); TL;DR (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

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-US-TLDR.wav.

Cite this entry: “tl;dr.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tl%3Bdr. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.