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What does « idk » mean?

« idk » is short for « I don't know ».

idk stands for « I don't know » — the first letter of each word, with the contraction counted as one.

It often softens a refusal rather than reporting ignorance: « idk, maybe » usually means « probably not ». The abbreviation carries that hedge; the full sentence does not.

How to write it in correct English

Written out, it is « I don't know ». Two things the abbreviation hides: the capital I, which English capitalises everywhere, and the apostrophe in don't, standing for the missing o of not. In formal writing, drop the contraction entirely: I do not know.

A corrected example

Here is what CorrectSMS does with a message containing « idk ». The correction and the explanations are the app's own.

• idk → I don't knowuse of texting abbreviation 'idk' instead of full phrase
• im → I'mmissing apostrophe in contraction of 'I am'
• ill → I'llmissing apostrophe in contraction of 'I will'
• u → youuse of texting abbreviation 'u' instead of 'you'
• tmrw → tomorrowuse of texting abbreviation 'tmrw' instead of full word
• idk if im free thursday ill tell u tmrw → I don't know if I'm free Thursday. I'll tell you tomorrow.missing punctuation and capitalization

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