AITA

What Does AITA Mean in a Text?

AITA means "Am I The Asshole?." It's used on social media platforms and forums, notably Reddit (r/AmItheAsshole), where it is used as a question (often rhetorically) when someone asks for an opinion on whether or not they have behaved badly towards another person. Participants respond with judgments like "YTA" (You're The Asshole), "NTA" (Not The Asshole), "ESH" (Everyone Sucks Here), or "NAH" (No Assholes Here), providing reasons for their decision. The forum serves as a modern-day moral compass, offering insights into social etiquette and the complexity of human relationships through collective reasoning.

Examples of AITA posts include:

A person asking if they're wrong for not wanting to share their inheritance with their sibling. (NAH.)
A tenant wondering if they're the asshole for complaining about their neighbor's loud music at night. (NTA.)
An employee questioning if they're in the wrong for calling in sick to attend a concert. (YTA.)

Image for AITA

When I write AITA, I mean this:

AITA is popular on social media platforms and forums, notably Reddit.

Summary of Key Points

We have summarized the key points in the table below:

AITA
Definition:	Am I The Asshole?
Type:	Abbreviation
Guessability:	3: Guessable
Typical Users:	Adults and Teenagers

An Academic Look at AITA

image for academic look, showing a teacher with a mortar board

AITA is an initialism abbreviation, as it is pronounced one letter at a time. Other examples of initialisms are AI ("Artificial Intelligence") and EW ("Electronic Warfare"). Initialisms are different to acronyms, which are abbreviations spoken as words (e.g., GOAT ("Greatest Of All Time"), NATO ("North Atlantic Treaty Organization").