A Risqué TikTok Trend You See Once A Year: NNN

It would be hard to list all of the TikTok trends that have come and gone over the years, and cataloging all of the abbreviations and acronyms regularly used on the social media platform would require a long, separate article.

There’s a trending topic that pops up in TikTok posts during one month of the year like clockwork, however, and it has nothing to do with the app itself.

If you’ve been baffled by the widespread use of the term “NNN” or the hashtag #NNN on TikTok every November, we can explain it.

Warning: explicit material ahead.

What Does NNN Mean on TikTok?

Years before TikTok was created, #NNN started appearing on some of the era’s social apps. It referred either to a personal choice or a challenge to other users, and it was first documented by the website Urban Dictionary in 2011. In recent years, it’s been commonly used in TikTok content.

(Last warning, things get sexually explicit after this.)

NNN stands for “No Nut November.”

For the uninitiated, “nut” in this context doesn’t mean the hard-shelled dry fruit most of us snack on, and “no nut” has nothing to do with peanut allergies. “Nut” is slang for masturbation, and “No Nut” means refraining from self-pleasure. “Nuts,” of course, is a slang term for the male testicles that produce sperm, and the phrase “to nut” has been in use since the 1930s.

No one’s quite sure why or how, but the NNN challenge was popularized in the early 2010s as a commitment to avoid masturbating for the entire month of November. (It’s probably not a coincidence that November has only 30 days, not 31). Many have expanded the meaning to also include any sexual activity that leads to climax, including sex.

In short, then, TikTok users who say they’re participating in NNN (or challenging someone else to participate) are talking about abstaining from masturbation and sex throughout November.

Why would anyone choose to do that? For most, it’s apparently a demonstration of self-control. Needless to say, though, there’s no way to know whether TikTok users are serious about a commitment to NNN — or just having fun online.