TL;DR

abbreviation or noun

ˈtē-ˈel-ˈdē-ˈär 

variants or tl;dr or less commonly TLDR or tldr

1

: too long; didn't read

—used to say that something would require too much time to read

Oops, TL;DR! There I go again with that darn critical thinking.

—Tracy Moore

… now it seems we are too rattled to even sit down and read something that long (or as the Internet would say, tl;dr—for "too long; didn't read").

—Alex Williams

2

informal : a briefly expressed main point or key message that summarizes a longer discussion or explanation

The TL;DR of all this, of course, is that you can't actually "disappear" from the Internet …

—Caitlin Dewey

—often used to introduce such a point

I've been staring at my laptop screen for a long, long time, trying to figure out how best to explain this episode. … TL;DR: It's complicated!

—Sean T. Collins

—often used before another noun to describe something that provides summarizing information

the TL;DR version

Examples of TL;DR in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Join us for a deep dive into the controversy on the latest edition of TL;DR. —Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 28 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

2002, in the meaning defined at sense 1