Meanings
- InternetinformaluncountableThe blend of informal language, conventional abbreviations and emoticons typical of chatrooms.
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 1403 more examples
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. 13I 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 illiterateIs 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 Press, page 69
Origin
- Middle Englishcheteren, chiteren (Imitative)
- Middle Englishchateren
- Englishchatterclip.
- Englishchat
- Englishchatspeak
Cite this entry
chatspeak. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chatspeak
“chatspeak.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chatspeak. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chatspeak,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chatspeak.
Source: chatspeak on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.