TS

What does TS mean?

Two letters, one swear word. TS stands for "this sh-t" or "that sh-t," and it works like either phrase would in speech: as a pointer to a thing, a situation or a mood that the writer feels strongly about. Wiktionary lists both readings as internet slang, and Know Your Meme describes TS as AAVE (African American Vernacular English) shorthand.

The strength of feeling can go either way:

• Annoyed: "ts pmo" means "this sh-t pisses me off." See PMO for the second half.
• Impressed: "ts hard" means this thing is really good.
• Dismissive: "I'm not doing ts" means I am not dealing with this.

A third, newer use is the source of most of the confusion. Starting in 2024, many people began typing ts as a plain abbreviation for "this," with no swear word intended: "can someone explain ts to me." Wiktionary now records that as a separate, often ironic sense. Plenty of people who use TS the original way consider it a mistake.

Other meanings. In everyday writing, "ts" is also just the plural of the letter t ("cross your t's"), and programmers will recognize .ts as the file extension for TypeScript code. Neither has anything to do with texting slang.

TS vs. "this": the mix-up that became a meme

The misuse is a big part of why so many adults are searching the letters now. Know Your Meme's record of it runs like this:

• July 2024: A TikTok meme pokes fun at people who use "ts" to mean "this." Know Your Meme calls it the first known meme about the misuse.
• August 2024: A post on X stating flatly that "ts" does not equal "this" draws tens of thousands of likes.
• December 2024: TikTok videos mocking the "ts (this)" usage pull millions of plays. Writing "ts (this)" with the word in brackets becomes a joke in itself, since spelling out the abbreviation defeats the point of using one.
• January 2025: People begin declaring the "ts (this)" joke dead, which is usually a sign that a meme has fully peaked.

The pushback was mostly aimed at non-Black users, Know Your Meme reports, because the misuse was seen as people picking up an AAVE term without understanding it.

Examples

• Group chat about homework: "ts due tomorrow?? nobody told me"
• TikTok comment under a song: "ts goes crazy on repeat"
• Text after a long shift: "ts job is wearing me down"
• Gaming voice chat, typed: "lag again. ts pmo"
• Ironic X post: "ts (this) is my favorite sandwich"
• Teen to a friend, about a sibling's playlist: "how does she listen to ts"
• Parent reads over a shoulder: "What does 'ts is bussin' mean?" (Answer: this stuff tastes great, with a swear.)

TS sits where "this" or "that" would sit in a sentence, usually at the start. The examples show why it confuses readers: unless you know the swear is baked in, most of these lines look perfectly polite.

Where did TS come from?

TS grew up in Black online speech as a short form of "this sh-t," the same way "smh" shortened "shaking my head." No single first post is credited. What is well dated is its leap into mass use:

• Before 2024: Used in AAVE texting and posts as ordinary shorthand.
• 2024: Wider use on TikTok, along with the "ts means this" misreading.
• December 2024 to January 2025: "TS PMO ICL" memes stack TS with PMO and ICL ("I can't lie") in deliberately overloaded captions. Know Your Meme traces the first viral one to a December 21, 2024 TikTok.
• 2025: The overload jokes trigger discussion about AAVE being appropriated or garbled, which Know Your Meme links to criticism of digital blackface.

Is TS rude?

Yes, mildly. It is a disguised swear rather than an insult, so the rudeness is about language, not about hurting someone. A teacher seeing "ts boring" in a class chat would likely treat it like any other cursing.

Context also matters for a different reason. Because so many kids picked up the "this" meaning, a child might use TS without knowing what it stands for. A calm "do you know what that's short for?" tends to land better than a lecture.

How to reply to TS

• Friend texts "ts is so good" with a song link: "Okay, adding it to my playlist."
• Your kid writes "ts annoying" about chores: "Noted. Still needs doing by dinner, though."
• Coworker slips "ts broken again" into a work chat: "I'll file a ticket. Can you send a screenshot?"

Is TS still used in 2026?

Yes. The meme wave of 2024 and 2025 made TS far better known than it had been, and both the original sense and the ironic "ts (this)" sense still turn up in comments. Know Your Meme was still updating its TS PMO ICL entry in January 2026.

It now travels in a pack with PMO, ICL, tuff and fr. For more shorthand that hides a swear, see the offensive slang guide.