TikTok Acronyms: ONB Can Have Several Meanings

Some of the mysterious terms, abbreviations, and acronyms commonly used on TikTok are particularly baffling because they have more than one meaning.

For example, one TikTok user might say that someone is “preening” to imply that they’re obsessively concerned with perfecting and showing off their appearance, while another might call a preteen who dresses and acts like a teenager a “preen.” Context can often provide important clues to which meaning the word is meant to convey.

Then there are terms you’ll hear in TikTok posts or see in comments that are difficult to decipher, even when you consider their context. One of them is “ONB.”

What Does ONB Mean on TikTok?

Most often, you’ll see “ONB” used as a response to a mildly funny TikTok video — but even the meaning of the acronym requires an explanation.

The term stands for “outward nose breath.” What’s that? It’s the reaction you might have to a joke that doesn’t quite make you laugh or even giggle; instead, you simply exhale briefly through your nose. In many ways, an “ONB” is analogous to a smirk or side-eye, indicating that a supposedly funny comment is worth acknowledging, but just barely.

In this context, an “ONB” reaction doesn’t make much sense to users simply seeing the acronym, unless they’ve viewed the TikTok content that triggered it.

The term is also used on the social media platform to stand for several other phrases, but not as often.

• “ONB” may stand for “on bro,” more often seen on Snapchat but now used on TikTok as well. It’s used as a synonym for sentiments like “trust me on this” or “I swear,” as in “I didn’t do it ONB” or “ONB I just ran into LeBron at a party!”
• “ONB” can also be used to make fun of someone or dismiss TikTok content that they’ve posted. It’s short for “old news, bro” in this context, meaning that the creator’s video “reveals” something that has already been known by almost every else. For example, breaking the news that a celebrity couple has broken up might be answered by “happened a month ago ONB.”

If this makes you think that you need a dictionary or glossary to use TikTok, you might be right — at least until you’ve gotten to the point where you spend way too much time on the app.