What Does CM Mean In Texting? (Explained!)

The abbreviation CM most commonly means “call me” when used in texting. It is used as a quick way to ask someone to speak on the phone rather than over text. This abbreviation has been in use since the earliest days of texting and has taken on a new life on modern social media.

Texting employs a great deal of shortened phrases, and this makes a lot of sense given the way texting was first done on alphanumeric keyboards.

Despite most phones having QWERTY keyboards nowadays, such abbreviations are still very popular to move a conversation forward more quickly.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What does CM stand for in texting?

In texting, CM most commonly stands for “call me”.

The sense is that you are asking the recipient of the message to phone you up and talk over the phone, rather than over text.

It may also just be something you send to someone you haven’t been texting, but that you want to talk to.

It’s almost like the old fashioned way of leaving someone a voice mail asking them to call you when they get the message.

It reduces the anxiety of an unexpected phone call, and gives the other person a chance to call you on their own time, rather than you trying to call them when they may be busy.

On the other hand, as I said, it may just be that two people are having a conversation over text and it’s getting laborious to continue it this way.

Thus, one person might simply say “CM” to make things easier. “I can’t be bothered typing anymore. CM,” for example.

Again, though this isn’t really the most popular way to talk now, back in the early days of texting, typing took a much longer time.

This would get frustrating, so you can see why people may have preferred to speak on the phone back then.

Even today, though, of course, it’s also just another way of perhaps diverting a conversation from one place to another.

Say, for example, two people were talking online in a public forum such as Twitter.

If they wanted to make the conversation more private, they might use “CM”. “I can’t talk here. CM,” for example.

So, CM has been a useful abbreviation since the earliest days of texting, and though its utility might have fallen off somewhat in recent years, it has definitely migrated over to modern social media, as well.

Where did it originally come from, then?

Where did CM come from?

As with many of these phrases and text slangs, it’s very hard to say with any precision exactly when they started being used.

As I’ve said, it would have arisen very naturally during the early days of texting when typing out anything took a lot longer than it would with a modern phone.

Though today we tend to think of these abbreviations as something young people tend to do more often, they were simply practical choices that everyone used back in the early days.

So, “CM” meaning “call me” probably arose quite early on when mobile phones became popular.

The earliest uses of it that we can find date from the late 90s and early 2000s.

So, it most likely started being used in the 1990s when commercial mobile phones were becoming more accessible and more people were using them.

Though this one in particular is one you’d think would be exclusive to texting rather than online instant messaging, this kind of slang lingo was almost always shared between the two platforms.

So, it also quickly became an abbreviation used online, too.

Obviously, it would have to be with someone you knew and whose number you had, so it was used less, but still very much used.

What does CM stand for on TikTok?

There are so many abbreviations in use and for every one that is used in one context in one place, it is used to mean an entirely different thing somewhere else.

CM is now commonly seen on TikTok and other social media sites—so what does it mean here?

Well, fortunately, in this case, it means the same thing most of the time.

Tiktokers use “cm” to mean call me, particularly when talking with friends, commenting on a friend’s video, or otherwise interacting with someone you know personally, or at least whose number you have.

But can it have any other meanings?

What else does CM mean?

Of course, there are a couple of other things that CM can mean.

Since it is a unit of measurement, don’t get confused with that one!

It can also mean “chat monitor” in some rare cases.

That is, someone who moderates and administers an online chatroom of some kind.

Since these chatrooms are nowhere near as popular as they once were, this phrase is not used as often as it once was.

Other than that, it does have one slang meaning in the Bahamas, and it is essentially a compliment for a man who gets with a lot of women. “He’s an absolute CM!” for instance.

“CM” can have a couple of different meanings, then, but it most often simply means “call me”.

Such abbreviations, particularly around asking someone to call you rather than continue texting you, are very common in text speech.

Even though they don’t quite have the same utility of reducing typing time that they once had, they are still used very widely.

More in Texting Meanings

Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

Was this article helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!