What does RN mean? RN Meaning and How to Use it
RN stands for Right Now. It is one of the most common chat slang and abbreviations used in social media chats. You can use it in lower or upper case. You should know that RN is appropriate for casual conversations alone.
RN Meaning and How to Use it
If nothing else changed, the popularity of mobile devices means we are now living in a fast-paced world. On the subway, in the queue, on your way to work, we are texting- sometimes with just one hand. If we aren’t texting, we are probably reading one. To pass our message across faster and without typos, we often use abbreviations and slang in our communication.
However, with new abbreviations emerging daily, it is becoming almost impossible to keep up. RN is one of the most popular abbreviations on the internet. It simply means “Right now” and shares a similar meaning with words like “currently” and “presently” and phrases like “at the moment.”
So, as you might have guessed, RN is used in texts to inform someone that you want something done at the very moment when the conversation is happening. Take this example:
Jack: The football match starts when?
Ryan: rn
Note how RN is used in a smaller case here. It doesn’t really matter either way. Most people who understand the meaning get the message, notwithstanding the case.
Aside from that, the example above shows how RN is used to respond to a question. What other ways can we use it?
You can also use RN as an interjection. That is, you can use it at the end of your text to emphatically demand that someone takes action immediately.
- I want you to get going rn!
Additionally, you could also use RN together with other abbreviations like wyd (what are you doing?) and hyd (How are you doing?).
- Hey Jane, wyd rn?
This way, you are asking Jane what she is doing at the moment. You probably asked this way because you wished to have a chat or invite her out and wanted to know if she was free.
When Did People Start Using RN?
Like every other internet slang and abbreviation, it is hard to say exactly the first time it was first used or the first person to use it in a specific way. What’s familiar with most chat abbreviations is that they have become popular with the internet’s growth. It is believed that people used abbreviations like RN as early as the 1990s when the internet was still pretty young and grew in popularity with chat sites like MySpace and messaging channels like AOL and Yahoo messenger.
With the sheer number of internet users on Twitter, Whatsapp, and Instagram, it is impossible to predict how the term could grow in the future. We have seen how slang like “No Big Deal” shrunk to “No biggie” and “No bigs.” The same should be expected for “Right now” (RN). It may seem ridiculous, but Gen-Zs really aren’t predictable.
Related: What Does NGL Mean in Text and How to Use it
Does RN have other meanings?
One thing you should know about abbreviations and internet slang is: that people can make any meaning they desire out of an abbreviation. To you “LMK” might mean Let Me Know, while the person on the other end of the chat meant Let’s Make Kids. Funny, right? Other Let Me Know is the popular meaning of LMK, you must acknowledge the fact that it is possible to make another meaning out of an abbreviation.
Interestingly, the same goes for RN. The popular interpretation is Right Now, but a small category of people often use it to refer to someone as a Real Nut (RN).
- You’re RNs bro
I added an ‘s’ at to RN there because the people would read the abbreviation as Real Nuts. The sender thinks the receiver is crazy or wacky when used this way.
So context is everything, even when using RN in a seemingly casual chat.
What unique ways do you use rn in your chat? Share them in the comments.
