LOL (also written lol and any other combination) is a common element of Internet slang used, historically, on Usenet but now widespread to other forms of computer-mediated communication, and even spread to face-to-face communication. It is an abbreviation for "laughing out loud" or "laugh out loud". "LOL" is one of many initialisms for expressing bodily reactions, in specific laughter, as text, including initialisms such as "ROTFL" ("roll(ing) on the floor laughing"), a more emphatic expression of laughter, and "BWL" ("bursting with laughter"), above which there is "no greater compliment" according to Magid. (Other unrelated expansions include the less common "lots of luck" or "lots of love".)

The list of initialisms "grows by the month" and they are collected along with emoticons and smileys into folk dictionaries which are circulated informally amongst users of Usenet, IRC, and other forms of (textual) computer-mediated communication. These initialisms are controversial, and several authors recommend against their use, either in general or in specific contexts such as business communications.

The use of LOL to express laughter is unrelated to other uses of the abbreviation, many of which (such as "lots of love") predate the Internet. LOL has also superseded the more-obvious "Ha!" that letter writers used to use.

Analysis

Many people are critical of "LOL" and its related acronyms, and there is some debate over their use.

Lacetti (professor of humanities at Stevens Institute of Technology) and Molsk, in their essay entitled The Lost Art of Writing, are critical of the acronyms, predicting reduced chances of employment for students who use such acronyms, stating that "Unfortunately for these students, their bosses will not be 'lol' when they read a report that lacks proper punctuation and grammar, has numerous misspellings, various made-up words, and silly acronyms." Fondiller and Nerone in their style manual assert that "professional or business communication should never be careless or poorly constructed" whether one is writing an electronic mail message or an article for publication, and warn against the use of smileys and these abbreviations, stating that they are "no more than e-mail slang and have no place in business communication".

Yunker and Barry in a study of on-line courses and how they can be improved through podcasting have found that these acronyms, and emoticons as well, are "often misunderstood" by students and are "difficult to decipher" unless their meanings are explained in advance. They single out the example of "ROFL" as not obviously being the abbreviation of "rolling on the floor laughing" (emphasis added). Haig singles out "LOL" as one of the three most popular initialisms in Internet slang, alongside "BFN" ("bye for now") and "IMHO" ("in my humble opinion"). He describes these acronyms, and the various initialisms of Internet slang in general, as convenient, but warns that "as ever more obscure acronyms emerge they can also be rather confusing". Bidgoli likewise states that these initialisms "save keystrokes for the sender but [...] might make comprehension of the message more difficult for the receiver", that "lang may hold different meanings and lead to misunderstandings particularly in international settings", andthereforeadvising that they be used "only when you are sure that the other person knows the meaning".

Hueng, in discussing these acronyms in the context of performative utterances, points out the difference between telling someone that one is laughing out loud and actually laughing out loud: "The latter response is a straightforward action. The former is a self-reflexive representation of an action: I not only do something but also show you that I am doing it. Or indeed, I may not actually laugh out loud but may use the locution 'LOL' to communicate my appreciation of your attempt at humor."

David Crystal notes that use of "LOL" is not necessarily genuine, just as the use of smiley faces or grins is not necessarily genuine, posing the rhetorical question "How many people are actually 'laughing out loud' when they send LOL?". Franzini concurs, stating that there is as yet no research that has determined the percentage of people who are actually laughing out loud when they write "LOL".

Victoria Clarke, in her analysis of telnet talkers, states that capitalization is important when people write "LOL", and that "a user who types LOL may well be laughing louder than one who types lol", and opines that "these standard expressions of laughter are losing force through overuse". Egan describes "LOL", "ROTFL", and other initialisms as helpful as long as they are not overused. He recommends against their use in business correspondence because the recipient may not be aware of their meanings, and because in general neither they nor emoticons are (in his view) appropriate in such correspondence. Lindsell-Roberts shares that view and gives the same advice of not using them in business correspondence, "or you won't be LOL".

Spread from written to spoken communication

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"LOL", "ROTFL","LMAO", and the other initialisms have crossed from computer-mediated communication to face-to-face communication. Teenagers now sometimes use them in spoken communication as well as in written, with "ROFL" pronounced /ˈroʊfəl/ or /ˈrɒfəl/ and "LOL" pronounced /ˈloʊl/, /ˈɛloʊˌɛl/, or /ˈlɔl/, for example. David Crystal - likening the introduction of "LOL", "ROTFL", and others into spoken language in magnitude to the revolution of Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the 15th century - states that this is "a brand new variety of language evolving", invented by young people within five years, that "extend the range of the language, the expressiveness [and] the richness of the language". Commentators disagree, saying that these new words, being abbreviations for existing, long-used, phrases, do not "enrich" anything; they just shorten it.

Geoffrey K. Pullum points out that even if interjections such as "LOL" and "ROTFL" were to become very common in spoken English, their "total effect on language" would be "utterly trivial".

Conversely, a 2003 study of college students by Naomi Baron found that the use of these initialisms in computer-mediated communication, specifically in instant messaging, was actually lower than to be expected. The students "used few abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons". The spelling was "reasonably good" and contractions were "not ubiquitous". Out of 2,185 transmissions, there were 90 initialisms in total, only 31 CMC-style abbreviations, 49 emoticons, and just 76 occurrences of "LOL".

Variations on the theme

For a list of words relating to for Internet laughter slang, see the Internet laughter slang category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Despite it being an English acronym, it is often used by non-English speakers as-is, even in other scripts (eg. Hebrew: לול, Cyrillic: лол).

Translations in widespread use

Most of these abbreviations are typically found in lowercase.

lal or lawl - can refer to either a pseudo-pronunciation of LOL, or the German translation (although most German speakers use "LOL"). Saying "lawl" is sometimes meant in mockery of those who use the term LOL, and not meant as serious usage. Some take this usage even farther by exclaiming "lawlerskates".

ｗ - used frequently in 2channel, a Japanese equivalent of the acronym. 'ｗ' stands for warau (笑う), which means "to laugh" in Japanese.

lolz - plural form occasionally used in place of "LOL".

lulz - an occasionally used slang for the above plural. Commonly seen on 4chan, being one of its memes, "I did it for teh lulz". lulz is typically a term for laughing at someone on the internet because they did something stupid, instead of laughing at something.

mdr - French version of the expression LOL, from the initials of "mort de rire" that roughly translated means "dying of laughter".

555 - The Thai variation of LOL. '5' in Thai is pronounced "ha", three of them being "hahaha".

asg - Swedish abbreviation of the term Asgarv, meaning intensive laughter.

g - Danish abbreviation of the word "griner", which means "laughing" in Danish.

kek - Cross-faction rendering of "lol" in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. Though most words are not translated directly across factions, "lol" is always faithfully rendered as "kek". When a member of the Alliance says the word "lol", nearby members of the Horde see the word as "kek", and vice-versa. "Kek" is derived from the Korean word kekeke, which is used to express laughter.

Other languages

Lol is a native Dutch word (not an acronym) which, conveniently, means "fun" ('lollig' means "funny").

In Welsh, lol means nonsense, e.g. If a person would say "stupid nonsense" in Welsh they would say "lol wirion".