RT
1or rt
noun, plural RTs, RT's.
verb (used with or without object) RTd or RT'd or RTed, RTing or RT'ing.
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Origin of RT
1Definition for RT (2 of 4)
abbreviation
Definition for RT (3 of 4)
Definition for RT (4 of 4)
Football.
ABOUT THIS WORD
What else does RT mean?
RT is short for retweet, which is the act of sharing another user’s post on the social media platform Twitter.
How is RT pronounced?
[ ahr-tee ]What are some other forms of RT?
rt
What are some other words related to RT?
Where does RT come from?
In the early days of Twitter (circa 2006), the term retweet was used by users when they wanted to tweet an identical message that they had tweeted earlier. However, the term quickly began to change meaning as users began wanting to share other people’s tweets. In order to do this, users would copy and paste another user’s tweet, then preface it with retweet, followed by the Twitter handle of the original author.
However, in 2008 one particular user, @TDavid, decided that he didn’t want to write retweet, and instead, used RT, particularly useful for a platform where space is at a premium. Since then, the acronym has steadily gained in popularity to the point where it is now commonplace on Twitter.
Twitter thought the manual retweet process was a bit cumbersome, so in 2009 it created a retweet feature, which allowed users to share other user’s tweets with the click of a button. Just months after Twitter implemented this new function, RT was entered into Urban Dictionary and Twittonary, a lexicon of Twitter jargon.
How is RT used in real life?
RT can be a noun (a/an RT) or verb (to RT). It can be written as an uppercase RT or lowercase rt.
On Twitter, RT can be often issued as a request for others to give them a signal boost.
new twitter.. pls rt and follow❤️ pic.twitter.com/eTBNlhjjBr
— Ty’Daja A. Rodriguez (@__dajathedolll) September 5, 2018
The acronym is also particularly popular among organizations implementing marketing campaigns.
A massive thank you to everybody who is supporting the Peoples Walk for Wildlife . If you would like contribute please visit: https://t.co/nBKygydVxG #PeoplesWalkForWildlife And please RT . pic.twitter.com/fwvtxiIy7h
— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) September 5, 2018
While less common, some people occasionally say retweet in everyday speech in order to express support for something someone else has said, such is the influence of Twitter on our everyday language.