TL;DR
{{Short description|"too long; didn't read"; internet comment}}
{{Redirect|TLDR|the software documentation project|TLDR Pages}}
{{DMY|date=April 2025}}
TL;DR or tl;dr, short for "too long; didn't read", is internet slang often used to introduce a summary of an online post or news article. It is also used as an informal interjection commenting that a block of text has been ignored due to its length.
History
The phrase dates back to at least 2002.{{Cite OED|tl;dr}}{{cite Merriam-Webster|tl;dr}}{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Dave |title=What does TLDR mean? Understanding the internet shorthand for lengthy text and its various uses |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/tldr-meaning |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}} According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its earliest known use was in a 2002 message posted on the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.video.nintendo. In 2009, the term appeared in Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined, a publication based on online crowdsourced slang database Urban Dictionary.{{Cite book |last=Peckham |first=Aaron |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u27ferHysRMC&dq=%22too+long;+didn't+read%22&pg=PA214 |title=Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined |date=2009-01-01 |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |isbn=978-0-7407-8892-5 |language=en}} Also in 2009, it was listed as a slang acronym in David Pogue's tweet anthology World According to Twitter.{{Cite book |last=Pogue |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AmPkXTAIScC&dq=%22too+long;+didn't+read%22&pg=PT86 |title=World According to Twitter |date=2009-08-15 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-1-60376-173-4 |language=en}} The term was added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2013.
See also
{{Wiktionary|tl;dr|TL;DR}}
- Abstract
- Attention economy
- Attention span
- BLUF – bottom line up front
- Information overload
- Internet culture
References
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{{Internet slang}}
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