It indicates a playful tone. Periods can affect the way we read the writing so to be cutesy some people use other characters. Hello. vs Hello~ Just has a different visual style. Answer from Deep_Picture_9100 on reddit.com
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Seventeen
seventeen.com › life › all things tech & social media › what does "..." mean in texts?
What Does ... Mean in Text Message? How to Use ... in Texts.
January 24, 2023 - What Does MK Mean in Texts? There are so many different ways you can use "..." in texts, and it's really up to the texter to decide how to use it. So use your best judgment before replying when reading messages with an ellipsis. Of course, depending on the context of the convo you're having, there are a few different ways you can respond.
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Quora
quora.com › What-does-mean-in-a-text-message-5
What does ;-; mean in a text message? - Quora
Answer (1 of 14): In text messages, [code ];-;[/code] generally represents a crying face, expressing sadness, disappointment, or feeling overwhelmed. The semicolon and dashes are used to create the appearance of eyes with tears rolling down, according to a post on Quora.
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Word Tips
word.tips › grammar › texting-slang
Text Slang Explained: What does...Mean? - Texting Guide - Grammar
November 28, 2025 - Though it’s a reasonably new phenomenon, similar elliptical languages date back almost 120 years, when telegraph operators used abbreviations to chat. You could even describe morse code as the first type of abbreviated communicative language, where symbols and letters are given meaning.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/randomquestion › what does ^-^ and *-* and ^_^ and *_* mean?
r/RandomQuestion on Reddit: What does ^-^ and *-* and ^_^ and *_* mean?
January 23, 2024 - 16 votes, 26 comments. 41K subscribers in the RandomQuestion community. Give us your most bizarre and random questions. We'll answer as if they were…
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
What does it mean? Top searches for text message abbreviations - YouTube
Californians wanted to know the #1 abbreviation: PMO—Put Me On. ICL—I Can't Lie came in second.
Published   March 25, 2025
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Mental Floss
mentalfloss.com › home › language
What Does "The" Mean?
January 19, 2023 - When someone says “I have the apple,” they mean a certain apple, not just “an apple”—any old apple, or “apples” in general. But, of course, it’s not quite that easy. Sometimes the doesn’t indicate a specific object, but a whole class of objects.
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YouTube
youtube.com › shorts › NddL-cEf3oA
When texting what does ... mean? + 7 top texting abbreviations #Shorts #sms #texting #communication - YouTube
When texting what does ... mean? What about texting abbreviations in English? In this short, we'll walk you through some of the nuances of punctuation in tex...
Published   September 7, 2023
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Quora
quora.com › What-does-mean-when-texting
What does '^' mean when texting? - Quora
Answer (1 of 12): I don`t have a cell phone , so I don`t text . Sorry .
Top answer
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From original question

I thought only " what does@@mean?"was grammatically correct but I heard a lot of Americans saying "what does it mean by @@?"

If you saw something confusing on a street sign, you might point and say "what does it mean by that".

Here, "it" would refer to the sign. You are treating the sign as if it were a person who had said something. So it's very similar to sentences like "What did he mean when he said that?"

This isn't particularly common. If you are reading and trying to understand a book that has a lot of confusing sentences and it's like the book itself starts to take on an evil identity...it might be more common. :-)

As for "What does it mean that (...)", there are rare cases you might hear it as a kind of question to provoke thought, where you're not expecting an answer (e.g. a "rhetorical question".)

  • "What does it mean that one fourth of humanity lives without electricity?"

But if you're really asking about what something means, "What does (...) mean?" or "What's the meaning of (...)?" would be what you'd want to use.

From updated question

I thought only "what does _____ mean?" was grammatically correct but I heard a lot of Americans saying "what do you mean by _____?"

Are both of them correct? Are there any differences between those two?

If you ask "what do you mean by ____" then you are suggesting the person has said something you want them to explain. But "what does ____ mean" could be asked of someone whether they've said anything or not. You're just asking a question about the general meaning of something.

In usage, "What do you mean by that?!!?" can be a strong negative reaction...usually when someone has said something that the person feels was meant to be insulting even if it wasn't "obviously" so. So it's not really asking for clarification, because the speaker has already assumed it was meant in a bad way.

But it can also just be a polite phrase asking what someone meant.

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Another variant might be that the subject is a quotation. For example, I might respond to part of your question by saying

What do you mean by "correct"?

The implication is that in order to answer your question, I need to understand what the quoted portion means to you in this context.

The use of that instead of a specific quoted part simply means the whole statement. As others have mentioned, the emphasis is on what the original speaker or writer meant.

(Note: I don't actually require you to tell me what you meant by "correct" in this case; I was just using that as an example)

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Quora
quora.com › What-does-mean-285
What does “--” mean? - Quora
Answer (1 of 2): Wow. No matter what question/doubt I get, it has already been asked in Quora. I was reading movie screenplays and “—” was used between two dialogues or action sometimes. Then I found this question in Quora. In an answer it was mentioned that it is called “em dash” ...
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Dictionary.com
dictionary.com › browse › mean
MEAN Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
In the context of mathematics and statistics, the word mean refers to what’s informally called the average—the sum of a set of values divided by the number of values.
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Social Sci LibreTexts
socialsci.libretexts.org › bookshelves › linguistics › analyzing meaning - an introduction to semantics and pragmatics (kroeger) › 1: the meaning of meaning
1.4: What does mean mean? - Social Sci LibreTexts
April 9, 2022 - For this reason it becomes crucial to distinguish (object language) expressions we are trying to analyze from the (metalanguage) words we are using to describe our analysis. When we write “What is the meaning of meaning?” or “What does mean mean?”, we use italics to identify object ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/askreddit › what does ;-; mean?
r/AskReddit on Reddit: what does ;-; mean?
February 16, 2021 - I could have said “the bottom of those two semicolons are meant to be teardrops” · But I feel that the way I said it is marginally more understandable, though technically incorrect. ... It's the crying face. ... Looks like Isaac from the Binding of Isaac. ... It's a crying emoticon. ... It's like a bruh face, when you don't know how and what to respond with to a text that you feel like is confusing/wrong/stupid, and you don't care about it, don't want to start an argument, but also not write anything.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/askwomennocensor › what does‼️mean in text?
r/AskWomenNoCensor on Reddit: What does‼️mean in text?
July 18, 2025 -

I'm in a couple of group chats, and it's mostly fun banter and jokes. Sometimes the women will react with a ‼️to a comment. It could vaguely mean shock, surprise, frustration or offense. Or maybe to call attention to something they don't agree with or feel some kind of way about without saying it. I get the feeling that it never means anything good.

What exactly does it mean when women react with the double exclamation emoji in text? I've only seen women use it, none of the guys I know do this. So asking here.

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Quora
quora.com › What-does-mean-in-texting-1
What does '^^' mean in texting? - Quora
Answer (1 of 33): ok if ur texting someone and they use “^^”, it can be pretty easy to tell what theyre saying. sometimes my friends will send me that emote, and ik what it means. it basically means that person ur texting is amused or happy. they might use it bc u said smt nice to them ...
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What Does That Mean?
whatdoesthatmean.com › what-does-_-mean-5
What does -_- mean? | What Does That Mean?
August 18, 2014 - ;_; Buzzword Catch Phrase confused De Crevecoeur does emoticon emoticons emotion expression expressions Face FACEBOOK faces Franklin Freneau hashtag help Idiom Jefferson love me mean meaning money None please quote Quotes sayings Slang symbol symbols talk term text texting Text symbols tongue Twitter what what does // mean what does this mean word ☪