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

Each mode allows or blocks certain features such as texting, browsing, or access to the camera. —PC Magazine, 18 July 2025

Another element of the process has been face-to-face practice, important in an age where social media and texting rule. —Janice Neumann, Chicago Tribune, 16 July 2025

The service will include telemedicine access, roadside assistance, and unlimited texting in 100 countries. —Amanda Castro hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 June 2025

This evidence transformed the case from one focused on truck driver negligence to one revealing plaintiff phone use through manual texting while driving. —Lars Daniel, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1999, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for texting

• bowstring
• coiling
• downswing
• drawstring
• forewing
• hamstring
• lapwing
• mainspring
• offspring
• plaything
• shoestring
• upswing