Definition of tweet

The origin of the word "tweet" in relation to social media can be traced back to the year 2006, when Twitter, the popular microblogging and social networking service, was launched. At first, users would update their profiles by sending text messages of up to 160 characters (the maximum length allowed by SMS messaging) to a designated phone number. These updates were known as "tweets," a term that reportedly was derived from the chirping sound made by birds. In a blog post from 2006, Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone wrote, "We decided to call these messages 'tweets' because they were short, bursty, andTwittery." As Twitter gained popularity, the verb "to tweet" entered the mainstream lexicon, and the practice of sharing short updates with the world through Twitter became known colloquially as "tweeting."