Slang dictionary

mufo

or MuFo [moo-foh]

What does mufo mean?

Mufo is short for mutual follower, referring to someone you follow on social media who follows you back.

But, it is sometimes an alternative form of mofo, a softening of the vulgar slang motherfucker.

Related words

oomf, finsta, flop account, best friend, la familia

Where does mufo come from?

Volusion

The term mufo clips and blends the expression mutual follower. The term mutual follower is seen by at least June 2007 on Twitter, where a mutual follower is someone you follow on social media who follows you back (hence mutual).

Because mutual follower is just apparently way too long for the internet, mutual follower was shortened to mufo by at least 2010.

Before the social media mufo went mainstream, mufo was sometimes used as shorthand for motherfucker or motherfucking. It’s still used that way sometimes online, similar to mofo, pronounced [moh-foh] and which dates back to the 1960s.

The expression mufo became more prevalent in 2016 on Twitter, perhaps in part to debates about the US presidential election that year that caused many people to unfollow social media friends.

Examples of mufo

if I unfollowed u by accident I'm sorry! this happened to a mufo whomst I like a lot and I'm sorry if it happened to you!
@EfficacyOfGrace, January, 2019
"mufo" sounds like an insult, but then again it could be a subtle, passive-aggressive way to call out contacts who are doing something that annoys you.
@ScorpioDragon84, March, 2019
recent searches / How to Make someone you Follow a Mufo / How to get Mufo / Good politics mufo / what besides liking the tweet to get mufo
@EnsendadaSlime, February, 2019
SEE MORE EXAMPLES

Who uses mufo?

The notion of mutual followers, AKA mufos, is found on social media, especially Twitter and Instagram. People have a lot of love for their mufos, and it can be considered rude to unfollow or mute them.

It is less common to see mufo as motherfucker with the new spread of mutual followers, but it still sees use.

MUFON, sometimes written MUFO, is the acronym for the Mutual UFO Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Mufo is not to be confused with muufo, a traditional Somali flat bread.

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Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of mufo like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of mufo that will help our users expand their word mastery.

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