What’s the difference between haha and jaja? What about kkkk or hhhh?
It’s a trick question: They mean the same thing. They’re all ways to express laughter, as interpreted by different cultures in different languages.
In person, laughter is universal. No matter what language you speak, almost anyone can understand the meaning of a mischievous giggle, sarcastic snort, or an infectious belly laugh. But it isn’t quite as simple when it comes to writing it down, especially in the era of social media and messaging apps.
Most English speakers are familiar with the nuances of when to say haha, lol, or lmao — each conveying a different weight to laughter. Other languages have their own specific terminology, some of which may not be immediately obvious even when translated.
Take Japanese, for instance. “Warau” is one way to express laughter. Some shortened that to just the first sound of the word, “w.” Others then noticed that “www” looked like blades of grass, leading people to start using the Japanese word for grass (草) to represent laughter. That continual evolution is why, if you want to write about laughing hard in Japanese, you could type 大草原: “giant grass field.”
Or there’s “askfhsjkd,” used in Turkish. No acronyms or wordplay here — keyboard spam is actually a popular way to indicate amusement among young Turkish speakers, as if they’ve been overcome by laughter and are unable to type complete words.
These are just a small fraction of the many ways people around the world represent laughter, from a little Nepali giggle — khit khit — to an explosion of laughter in Nigerian Pidgin: lwkmd, or “laugh wan kill me die.” We know the world can always use a little more laughter, so we’ve rounded up dozens of our favorite examples of how people from all over laugh online.
Abbreviation of “a wah di joke yah tarl,” used when shocked or amused
هه sounds like “ha,” making this a close equivalent to “haha”
7 looks like ح which sounds similar to “ha.” Used rarely these days
An expression meant to imitate the sound of a laugh
Repeated abbreviation of the Portuguese word for laughter, “riso”
Cyrillic version of a now-somewhat-vintage expression: “rofl”
“Laugh to death,” but with the Cantonese curse word “L” included
An ironic laugh written in Estonian, where the number 6 is pronounced “oh”
An acronym for “mort de rire,” meaning “dead from laughter”
An abbreviation of “pété de rire,” or “exploded from laughter”
English An alternative way of writing “hahaha” in Gambian English
Meaning “I cry,” as in “Iʼm crying with laughter”
The letter “j” is pronounced the same as “h” in English, making this “hahaha”
Similar to Trinidadian Creole’s “ohlawdoi”
Hebrew “Hahaha” written in Hebrew script
לול is a way of saying “lol” in Hebrew
למאו can be taken to mean “lmao” in Hebrew
“Haha” written in the Devanagari script, common in India and Nepal
Laul, lulwa, and lawl are ironic ways of saying “lol” in North Indian slang
Known as “duck laugh,” popular with Indonesia’s online gaming community
An abbreviation of “gáire ós árd,” meaning “lol” in the Irish language
Short for the Irish “ag briseadh mo thóin ag gáire,” meaning “lmao”
Meaning “I fly,” as in “you made me laugh so hard I’m flying away”
The first part of the Japanese word for “laughter,” which is 笑い or “warau”
A repetition of the “w” sound in the first part of the word for laughter, “warau”
Meaning grass, because “www” looks like blades of grass
Taking it another step further: “giant grass field,” used to express harder laughter
ㅋ in Korean is pronounced “k,” so this reads as “kkkk”
Used similarly to “hehe” in English, itʼs not as popular as ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
5 is pronounced “ha” in Lao, making this “hahaha”
A shorter — if outdated — way of saying “hahaha”
Refers to a popular forumʼs laughing emoticon, numbered 233
Abbreviation of the romanized version of 哈哈哈 (“hahaha”)
Means “laugh to death” and pronounced “xiaosi”
A shortened, romanized version of “xiaosi” or “laugh to death”
Short for “kaha te katakata,” meaning “to laugh with power” and used similarly to “lol”
Used to represent giggling, though not as common as “haha”
Nigerian Pidgin Short for “laugh wan kill me”
Nigerian Pidgin Taking it a step further: “laugh wan kill me die”
خ is pronounced “kha,” making this sound similar to “khakhakha”
Persian لول (and لال) are ways of saying “lol”
“Hahaha” written in the Cyrillic script, used in several Slavic languages
Cyrillic version of “lol,” found in multiple Slavic languages
In certain Slavic languages, one parenthesis is a smile, so ))) can represent laughter
Laughter written in Sinhala, pronounced “hu”
Used in Somali, Kinyarwanda, and other languages to imitate laughing
Meaning “I pee,” as in “Iʼm peeing from laughter”
The letter “j” is pronounced the same as “h” in English, making this “hahaha”
Less commonly used, an abbreviation for “asgarv,” meaning “uproarious laughter”
Translated into English, this can be read as “hhhh”
Can mean surprise, excitement, or just laughing for a long time
“Oh lord” in Trinidadian Creole, with the suffix “oi” added. Like “ways” in meaning
Keyboard spam, as if the speaker is overcome by laughter and can’t type coherently
An older Cyrillic expression representing the sound of a laugh
Somewhat rare, an abbreviation of “ree ba tas,” used to say “laughing until tiredness”
Used in Zulu, Xhosa, Shona, Oromo, and other languages to express laughter
