texting

noun

text·​ing ˈtek-stiŋ How to pronounce texting (audio)
: the act or activity of sending text messages from one cell phone to another
When I moved to Chicago, I used a paper map that folded in your lap to navigate the city. There was no Internet, no e-mail, no texting … . A few people in the late eighties had giant cell phones that lived in tiny suitcases, and I saw some in movies.Amy Poehler
Texting freed a generation from the strictures and inconvenience (and awkwardness) of phone calls, while allowing people to be more loosely and constantly connected.Jenna Wortham

Examples of texting in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Even with the Internet, myriad television channels, home videos and DVDs, with texting and Twitter, and all the rest of technology, people — the most successful people it could be argued — still make time to read. Lynne Agress, Baltimore Sun, 19 May 2025 Dry texting is the most common way kids at her school find out someone is mad at them, Akshaya, also 18, told me. Anna North, Vox, 15 May 2025 Privacy and tech experts say the popular end-to-end encrypted messaging and voice call app is more secure than conventional texting. Tara Copp, TIME, 24 Mar. 2025 The screen was nice, the (smallish) phone size was good, and the device remained plenty fast at all the basic tasks: texting, emails, web browsing, snapping photos. Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, 24 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for texting

Word History

First Known Use

1999, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of texting was in 1999

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Cite this Entry

“Texting.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/texting. Accessed 1 Jun. 2025.

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