ConnectAbbreviation · Ages 9-80 · In use
lol
Started as laughing out loud. For young people it rarely means actual laughter now. It softens a message, signals a joke or irony, or fills an awkward pause.
I have three tests tomorrow lol
For parents and educators
Kids show real laughter with 😭, 💀 or a keysmash instead. Lol after something sad or stressful usually means they're downplaying it, not that it's funny.
Where it came from
Online chat in the 1980s and 1990s. Linguists have tracked how it drifted from laughter to a tone marker.
Also heard as
LOL, lolol