Trending Pages
What is a COVIDIOT?
Can sounds give you brain tingles?
What is a man looking for younger girls called?
What is an "Unexplained Drinking Injury (UDI)"?
What does QQ mean?
P911 means parents are watching!
Why does <4 mean "more than love"?
What does DIAMOND HANDS mean?
Send an encrypted message.
Learn all the Snapchat emojis.
PWOS
Search our site
What Does PWOS Mean?
PWOS means "Parents watching Over Shoulder."PWOS is typically used by young people who are undertaking an online activity that they wish to hide from their parents (e.g., gaming instead of doing homework, engaging in dating-style chat, planning a discreet event).
PWOS is effectively code for "I must stop this conversation now" or "I must change the nature of this conversation to something more acceptable."
"Cyber Speak" Test
You now know what PWOS means, but are you good at Cyber Speak? Well, let's see!

Image for PWOS
When I write PWOS, I mean this:
Summary of Key Points
"Parents Watching Over Shoulder" is the most common definition for PWOS on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.PWOS | |
---|---|
Definition: | Parents Watching Over Shoulder |
Type: | Abbreviation |
Guessability: | ![]() 2: Quite easy to guess |
Typical Users: | ![]() Teenagers |
More...
Examples of PWOS in Sentences
Here are examples of PWOS being used in conversations:- Tony: What passage did we have to learn for English? (PWOS)
- Jordan: Passage 15. Okay. Speak later.
An Academic Look at PWOS
PWOS is typically used as a standalone declarative sentence (i.e., a statement) meaning "My parents are watching over my shoulder." In other words, it is not used as another part of speech within a wider sentence.Of note, PWOS is an initialism abbreviation. Technically, this means it is pronounced using its individual letters (i.e., Pee Dublyu Oh Ess), but as this is harder to say than "Parents watching over shoulder," it is not often uttered using its letters. In other words, the abbreviation PWOS is for efficiency in writing and not efficiency in speech.
What Did We Say before Texting and Social Media?
Before the digital era, we might have said something like "parent alert" or "parents in room" instead of PWOS.Example of PWOS Used in a Text
PWOS
Help Us To Improve Cyber Definitions
- Do you disagree with something on this page?
- Did you spot a typo?
- Do you know a slang term that we've missed?