What does texting mean?
Texting is the activity of sending and receiving short written messages, usually by mobile phone and now also through messaging apps. The term may name the act of sending a single message, but more often refers to communication as a practice: people text friends, arrange plans, and exchange brief updates. In British and American English, it is an established everyday word rather than a technical term, although its tone can range from casual and affectionate to impersonal or curt. Texting is usually informal, yet sentence capitalization, punctuation, and context still affect how a message sounds. Compared with a spoken conversation, it can be quicker and less demanding, but it may also remove vocal cues such as tone. The word’s history is unexpectedly textile: its ancestor, “text,” originally meant woven fabric. Today, “texting” names a thoroughly digital form of communication.
The activity or practice of sending and receiving short written messages, usually by mobile phone or messaging app.
"Excessive texting while driving is dangerous and may violate traffic laws."
The noun is normally uncountable when it refers to the activity generally.
To send a text message to someone or to communicate with someone by exchanging short written messages.
"They were texting one another throughout the concert."
Common in both formal and informal contexts, though the verb often describes informal digital communication.
Rare and generally avoided; “texting” is normally uncountable, while an individual message is usually called a “text.”
"Archivists found two brief textings exchanged between colleagues."
Today “texting” means tapping messages on a phone; its ancestor, “text,” originally meant woven fabric.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does texting come from?
The English word “text” descends from Latin textus, meaning “woven thing” or “texture,” from texere, “to weave.” As electronic messaging developed through telephone and mobile-phone systems, “text message” came to denote a short written message sent over a telecommunications network, and “text” acquired the additional sense of sending such a message. “Texting” is the corresponding gerund-like form and is used both for the act of sending messages and for communication by text message.
Related word forms
How texting is actually used
Informal to neutral in ordinary use. It is common in personal, educational, and business contexts, although its meaning is generally broader than sending SMS messages because it also covers communication through internet-based messaging apps. There are no significant British and American differences.