Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🩺 Diabetes disease ✉️ Private message
DM

DM

1 3.7
A private message sent to a person on social media or a messaging app
  • noun
  • /diː ɛm/
  • Jargon
translation icon : mensaje directo
  • He prefers to communicate through DMs rather than posting publicly.
  • DM on Twitter

I get I've gotten thousands of DMS in eight days.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • I chatted with him via Twitter DM earlier last week.

    Blog text (26)

  • Yeah, but to be fair, we're just talking to you via Instagram DMS, right?

  • And I answer all the DMS from old people.

  • I'm going to slide into their DM, say, great, what's your address?

    Tom Ferry

  • I mean, you want to make a connection in the DMS with your Mama, right?

  • ...or FaceTime you, or DM you or what?

    Blue Story (2019)

  • Ned, do you ever check your DMS from fans?

    Vanity Fair

  • Let me just read this DM that Gavin sent me from Kareem.

  • You know, I've slid into the DMS and that didn't go well.

  • I often receive DMs from friends asking about my weekend plans.

Synonyms

PM
vsDM
  • Jargon
3.8

A private message sent directly to one person online

is used mainly for social media or messaging apps rather than general forums
dm
vsDM
  • Texting
6.9

A private message sent directly to another user on social media

is the full standard term used instead of the informal abbreviation

How Widely

viral
  • Texting
108 3.7
share
  • Texting
111 3.1
regram
  • Texting
7.7
to save
  • Specialized
211 1.3
DM
  • Jargon
1 3.7

Surface Forms

DM singular
DMs plural

Morphology

DM = direct + message (opaque) = D + M

Although 'direct' + 'message' is a transparent phrase, the abbreviation 'DM' requires knowing the expansion and is not guessable from the letters alone.

Etymology

DM is short for direct message, where direct means 'straight' and message is a note you send to someone. So a DM is a 'private' message you send straight to one person on social media or in an app.