IYKYK

About

IYKYK is an acronym that stands for "if you know, you know" which is often linked to inside jokes or seemingly vague content that actually has a deeper meaning. The acronym became popular on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram in 2019 in the form of a hashtag.

Origin

On December 4th, 2016, Urban Dictionary^[1] user catlover29 defined "iykyk" as "If You Know You Know" for example "Last nights party was crazy #iykyk." The definition gained over 3,000 upvotes and 420 downvotes in four years.

Spread

On May 24th, 2019, Twitter user @riannaelisse^[4] shared pictures of go-karts with the caption, " I’m this old #iykyk" (Shown below, left). The tweet received over 1,100 likes and 420 retweets in a year. On December 30th, 2019, TikToker @singulardollarbill uploaded a video skit using the hashtag referencing sexual acts (show below, right). The video gained over 538,600 likes in three months. On January 2nd, 2020, Hashtag Dictionary^[3] user Emily Carmels posted "Iykyk is mostly used on Tiktok. An which people make videos. Iykyk just mean If you know you know helping people understand the content which is published on TikTok. Iykyk just means only certain will understand the constant."

On February 10th, 2020, Twitter user @chrisharrysmind^[5] used the hashtag in a Bachelor meme (shown below, left). The tweet garnered over 2,600 likes and 200 retweets in a month. On February 14th, TikToker @bethany_decker used the hashtag when referencing the movie Call Me By Your Name (shown below, right). The video accumulated over 282,500 likes in a month. As of March, the hashtag has been userd over 837,200 times on Instagram.^[2]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References