The Meaning of WRD On TikTok: It’s Not An Acronym

Those who only visit TikTok occasionally are likely to come across acronyms they don’t understand.

FYP (For You Page) and DC (dance challenge) are specific to the social media platform and quickly deciphered. Figuring out others, like DNI (do not interact) and BBL (Brazilian butt lift), may require new TikTok users to spend hours on the app.

“WRD” is another term that’s used regularly in TikTok comments and sometimes encountered in other TikTok content, but if you suspect that it’s another acronym, you’re wrong.

It’s actually an abbreviation, adapted from 1980s hip-hop slang that’s become common enough to be found in Merriam-Webster and other authoritative English dictionaries.

What Does WRD Mean on TikTok?

“WRD,” when used on social apps and in other written communications, stands for “word.”

The term apparently originated in the 1981 song “Money (Dollar Bill, Y’all)” by Jimmy Spicer, in the lyric “Word…that’s a good record, man.” The similar phrase “Word up” entered common usage a few years later, first documented in 1985. The two terms spread like wildfire throughout the hip-hop world and then became common slang. 

Both are used to express agreement, approval, understanding, or admiration. “Word” is often heard as the last word (no pun intended) in conversations between friends, as one person signals their agreement with what the second person said before walking away or hanging up the phone.

It’s not clear when “WRD” became the written equivalent of “word” in texts and on social media apps, why the letters are capitalized when “fr” is commonly used to stand for “for real,” or why those letters were chosen instead of “WD,” for example.

The details don’t really matter, though; WRD has become just one more of those abbreviations (not acronyms, in this case) that are used everywhere on TikTok and baffle users who see them for the first time.