TLDR

Tl;dr or tldr stands for “too long; didn’t read.”

While the internet acronym can criticize a piece of writing as overly long, it often is used to give a helpful, witty, or snarky summary of a much longer story or complicated phenomenon.

The abbreviation tl;dr is found on a Usenet newsgroup about video games as early as 2002 and earned entry on Urban Dictionary by the following year. Originally, tl;dr was an insult, used in reaction to some post, comment, or content seen as wordy or long-winded—as if literally saying “This is way too long, so I didn’t read it.”

By 2005, tl;dr had taken on a second meaning as a shorthand for a “summary,” frequently called the tl;dr version of a longer account or article. Tl;dr took off with social media in the 2010s, boosted by the practice of linking out to longer content on platforms like Twitter while offering a quick take on it.

Memes sometimes use tl;dr to suggest prominent figures haven’t read some text they claim to value, like the Bible or U.S. Constitution.

Tl;dr can give a genuine summary of a much longer piece—the gist, the big takeaway, the moral of the story.

This analysis 🙌 🙌. Tldr: string theory is a prime example of how social power dynamics have a huuuuuge impact on what science gets done. https://t.co/AZPW8RjnOa

— Jenna Freudenburg (@TheJFreud) October 25, 2017

This is the schtick of one film review site, TL;DR Movies, which opens each review with a brief judgment before going into its longer view, like this tl;dr on Avengers: Infinity Wars: “TL;DR – Infinity War brings everyone together and then tears them apart leaving you with a foreboding as to what will happen next, but also an excitement as they try to work it all out.”

People might also use tl;dr in personal accounts along the lines of “to make a long story short” or “to get to the point”:

Tl;dr can also issue a snarky take on a longer, more complex topic, as if boiling it down to its essence.

TLDR: the “women take on average 20 minutes to orgasm” statistic is literally non-existent. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/x3qQFDm2e9

— Annemie (@writersbleedink) May 16, 2018

One might dismiss a document seen as overly long with a tl;dr, like those ridiculously long and dense “Terms of Service” forms we always sign without ever reading.

In case you ever wondered how long would it take..TLDR;#infosec #GDPR #womenintech pic.twitter.com/44j7Pq53Yp

— Women Techmakers Berlin (@wtm_berlin) May 16, 2018

Occasionally, tl;dr can stand for too lazy, didn’t read, sometimes used when a person makes fun of their own short attention span.

Based on its form, others humorously call and imagine tl;dr as a teal deer, a kind of spirit animal guiding us through the wilderness of too much internet content.

More examples of TLDR:

“If you’re super lazy and didn’t read the TL;DR version, here’s a TL;DR of the TL;DR: getting old kinda sucks; we change (sometimes for the worse) and the people we love and used to recognise change around us.”
—Bradley Russell, GamesRadar+, January, 2018

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.