SMS

abbreviation or noun

: a technology for sending short text messages between mobile phones
Although driven by teens and young adults who seemingly aren't satisfied with online instant messaging, SMS can be very useful for sending urgent messages to family members or co-workers.Consumer Reports
often used before another noun
Creative, colorful, and sometimes perplexing, emoji add energy to SMS messages.Christina Bonnington
also : a message sent using this technology : text message
… is helping to test a device that implants sensors in cows to let farmers know when they are in heat. When that is the case, the device sends an SMS to the farmer's phone. John Tagliabue

Examples of SMS in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The base Email and SMS plan bumps your SMS credits to 1,250. Gabriel Zamora, PCMAG, 31 Jan. 2024 This includes in-person, email, phone or even through SMS marketing. Rolling Stone Culture Council, Rolling Stone, 6 Mar. 2024 Sign up for Your Vote: Text USA TODAY reporters and the elections team by joining our SMS service. Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2024 Even worse, there's the potential that things don't just magically switch to SMS on other people's phones because your RCS is broken. Zak Doffman, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024 This article was produced in partnership with Outlier Media, which runs an SMS texting service to share information about COVID-19 in Detroit. Miriam Marini, Detroit Free Press, 27 Jan. 2024 Harris has now joined President Joe Biden on Community, an SMS marketing platform with at least 28 million members that helps big brands, entertainment sectors, musicians and lately, politicians, connect with the public via texts. Sunny Nagpaul, Fortune, 9 Feb. 2024 Medicine is pre-packed and loaded into the box which a patient can open with a code sent via SMS. Nell Lewis, CNN, 1 Feb. 2024 In addition to email, many businesses also want to reach people using SMS messaging. Gabriel Zamora, PCMAG, 31 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'SMS.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Short Message Service

First Known Use

1991, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of SMS was in 1991

Dictionary Entries Near SMS

Cite this Entry

“SMS.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/SMS. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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