hashtag
noun
Joe SheehanMark Leibovich
Did you know?
Hashtags are an everyday part of Internet culture, thanks to social media. Originally designed for categorizing posts (i.e., tagging them) on Twitter, hashtags now commonly also supplement or comment on whatever text or image they accompany. The “hash” in hashtag is short for hash mark, a term for what we also call a pound sign or, if you want to apply the word-nerdiest designation, an octothorpe. Hash in this case is probably an alteration of hatch, a term for the lines artists sometimes use to add shading to a drawing. #WordNerdery
Examples of hashtag in a Sentence
David Opie, IndieWire, 25 Feb. 2025
The #OscarsSoWhite hashtag went viral following the 2015 and 2016 nominations, when no people of color were nominated in the four acting categories.
—Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2025
Men across the country populated the hashtag with smiling images alongside vulnerable captions about personal growth and optimism.
—Char Adams, NBC News, 20 Feb. 2025
The hashtag #JusticeforIqra was included in the tweet.
—Angel Saunders, People.com, 19 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hashtag
Cite this Entry
“Hashtag.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hashtag. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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