Cramming complex ideas into 140 characters on Twitter can be challenging. So can describing what you had for lunch. Therefore, one abbreviates, uses symbols, hints at meaning.

There is a whole slew of widely accepted acronyms, many of which grew out of the text messaging craze (Thanks, kids!).

To help you get more info into your tweets, here are some of the most-used acronyms on Twitter:

RT – Re tweeting/forwarding an original tweet.

DM – Direct Message. This is a private message that does not show in the public time line.

FAIL – something’s gone wrong (Twitter’s down — so how are you tweeting this?)

LOL – Laugh(ing) out loud

IMHO – In My Humble Opinion

WTH – What the Hell … or “heck”; variant of the cruder WTF

BTW – By the way

IRL – In Real Life

FTF – Face to Face

ASAP – As Soon As Possible

JV – Joint Venture

LMK – Let Me Know

J/K – Joking or Just Kidding

FB – Facebook

OH – Overheard

FTL – For the Loss

FTW – For the Win

TTYL – Talk to you later

TY – Thank you

YW – You’re welcome

TMI – Too much information