hashtag

noun

hash·​tag ˈhash-ˌtag 

plural hashtags

: a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text (such as a tweet)

You know a thing is really a thing these days when it has its own hashtag. And there it was last week, trending on Twitter alongside #cincodemayo and #happymothersday: #umpshow, which sprang up in the wake of some shockingly bad umpiring over the first six weeks of the major league season.

—Joe Sheehan

It's also true that a popular hashtag can benefit important and worthy subjects, such as the recently kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls.

—Mark Leibovich

also : the symbol # as used in a hashtag

Did you know?

Hashtags are an everyday part of Internet culture, thanks to social media. Originally designed for categorizing posts (i.e., tagging them) on Twitter, hashtags now commonly also supplement or comment on whatever text or image they accompany. The “hash” in hashtag is short for hash mark, a term for what we also call a pound sign or, if you want to apply the word-nerdiest designation, an octothorpe. Hash in this case is probably an alteration of hatch, a term for the lines artists sometimes use to add shading to a drawing. #WordNerdery

Examples of hashtag in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Matlock says previously, there was no obligation, other than to use hashtags #teampixel or #giftfromgoogle to comply with FTC disclosure requirements. —Victoria Song, The Verge, 16 Aug. 2024

Throughout that time, activists have repeatedly launched campaigns against hostile architecture, using hashtags like #HomesNotSpikes or #SoyonsHumains to document examples, from single-seater benches in Lyon to concrete bollards installed in doorways where people might be tempted to sleep. —Morgan Meaker, WIRED, 9 Aug. 2024

In July, inspired by the success of anti-tax protests in Kenya, Nigerians began to mobilize on the social platform X and other social media sites under the hashtag #EndBadGovernance. —Innocent Eteng, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Aug. 2024

The hashtag was the number one food trend on the platform on Aug. 7. —Bahar Anooshahr, The Arizona Republic, 12 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

2007, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

hashtag

noun

hash·​tag

ˈhash-ˌtag

: a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text (as a tweet)