texting

noun

text·​ing ˈtek-stiŋ 

: 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

In October, the company also activated the cellular Starlink service to enable emergency texting following Hurricanes Helene and Milton. —Michael Kan, PCMAG, 16 Jan. 2025

The teenager was also seen texting on her phone, walking alongside a brick building. —Hannah Sacks, People.com, 14 Jan. 2025

So texting has at least restored to us something of the frigid, impersonal silence that is supposed to obtain when people ride the train together. —James Parker, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2025

Montana is the only state that hasn’t banned texting while driving, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. —David A. Lieb, Los Angeles Times, 29 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1999, in the meaning defined above