Despite the undoubted popularity of third-party photo and video sharing services, it could be argued that Twitter is all about language.
Whether it’s usernames, hashtags or that infamous 140-character limit, the service is built around using language in a very specific way. Even more fascinating to word lovers, Twitter has added a ton of vocab to our online lexicon, made abbreviations much more acceptable, and can spread new words globally in minutes.
Here, we bring you eight excellent language-related Twitter tools that will help with defining terms, explaining hashtags, analyzing text and finding more concise ways of phrasing tweets. Let us know in the comments below which ones you find useful, as well as any others you use.
1. Thsrs
Thsrs offers a very simple online service. It bills itself as “the shorter thesaurus,” offering you less lengthy synonyms for a long word. Perfect for language snobs who’d rather change their choice of vocab than abbrev8, it’s also available as a browser plug-in.
2. My Twitter Weighs a Ton
This free and simple service offers some rather interesting info. In addition to showing the most-used words on Twitter overall, and the most-used words in people’s first tweets (go check it out yourself — we won’t ruin the surprise), it will also show what words you tweet the most.
3. Twittonary
If you don’t know the difference between “twad” and “twadd,” or worse still “twander” and “twandle,” then maybe you should head on over to Twittonary and brush up on some vocab. Allow extra time for perusing the T words, of course — there’s quite a few of those. Twictionary offers similar, but is not as pretty.
4. Twitter Tussle
Great for settling “what’s the most popular?” arguments, Twitter Tussle will analyze two words and, after the cartoon birds have finished their fight, reveal which enjoys the most TPM (tweets per minute). It’s a fun, slightly addictive way to take the pulse of Twitter text.
5. 140it
When you just can’t shave your tweet down to 140, this service will help, primarily by making it look like a teenage girl wrote it. Jest aside, it’s a handy service that will give you some acceptable abbreviation ideas if you’re really struggling to self-edit. Twitterative offers a similar service.
6. Tweet Psych
Tweet Psych sits you on the sofa and analyzes the language of your tweets to give you a run-down of just what it is your Twitter vocab says about your mental state. It works by comparing how many times you tweet certain words (“work,” “sex,” positive and negative sentiments, etc.) to the average, offering you a snapshot of how you stack up versus the rest of the Tworld.
7. Tagdef
If cryptic hashtags have you stumped, then you can turn to tagdef for the answer. The site offers up trending, new, popular and random tags, but you can look up specific examples to find out if they are just a typo or they really exist. Another option along these lines worth mentioning is What the Hashtag?!.
8. Twinslator
If you need to tweet in a foreign language, this service can help. Powered by Google Translator, Twinslater offers the added bonus of posting one, or both, of your tweets to Twitter directly from the site. We’d be prepared for some “please put your aunt in the teacup” translation hilarity, but as a basic service to help you be briefly bilingual, it works.
BONUS: Twitter Symbols
When words just don’t cut it, say it with a symbol. A handy site to bookmark, Twitter Symbols offers all the Unicode symbols that will display on the micro-blogging service. Just don’t overdo it.
More Twitter Resources from Mashable:
– 5 Useful Tools to Track Twitter Unfollowers
– 5 Terrific Twitter Mapping Tools
– 5 Fab Twitter Follower Visualization Tools
– 5 Free Ways to Never Miss a Twitter @Reply
– The Origin of Twitter’s “Fail Whale”
Image courtesy of Iconshock
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