Have you ever noticed that English social media sites tend to have random letters of the alphabet floating around? For example, at the time of writing:
CNN International’s Twitter has 12.5 “M” followers.
This Instagram page run by a member of our staff has 45.5 “K” followers:
You might have figured out that K is an abbreviation for “one thousand,” but why K? And what about M? Today, we’ll go into why these letters are used this way and whether these abbreviations can be used in English conversations as well.
K
The K in “10k followers” or “5K likes” comes from the metric system. It’s the same K as the ones in these abbreviations:
But why does K mean 1000? Well, this goes back to ancient Greek. When French scientists were developing the metric system, they took “chilioi,” the Greek word for “thousand,” and turned it into the prefix “kilo-.”
In informal English, you’ll actually hear people just saying K, especially when they are talking about money. For example, here’s a video of a PhD student who shares that he makes “30K” a year:
M
M, which represents “million,” also comes from the metric system. It’s the same M that’s in units of measure such as:
You will see M used this way in news headlines, especially in financial news. After all, writing “m” or “M” saves a lot more space than writing out all the zeros or the full word (“million”).
“Canada Facebook fined $6.5m over 'false' privacy claims” (BBC)
“Japan ship operator to pay $9M over Mauritius oil spill” (Washington Post)
However, M is not as standard of an abbreviation as K. So you won’t hear people saying things like “The CEO of Facebook makes 23M a year.”
In addition, not all news agencies use “M” as an abbreviation for “million.” For example, the New York Times has stopped using this abbreviation since around 2010. One possible reason for this is that lowercase “m” also means “meter,” and this abbreviation is also often used in headlines, which could lead to confusion.
Anyways, since M isn’t a standard way to abbreviate “million,” don’t be surprised if you see other abbreviations, such as “mln” or “mn.”
In casual conversation, you’ll sometimes hear people abbreviate “million” to “mill.” For example, a person in the following video talks about how a business went from “0 to 100 mill” in revenue in 7 years:
Bonus: “Grand”
Did you know that there’s another casual way to say “a thousand dollars” in English?
This car cost me 30 grand.
The average cost of college tuition in the US is around 35 grand a year.
This expression is believed to have started with American mobs in the 1900s. These illegal groups were always moving around “grand” amounts of money and needed code words to refer to them. Funnily, their code word has since become a common slang expression around the English-speaking world!
Do you have any other questions about English? Or want to improve your English speaking skills? Sign up for a free lesson with one of our tutors!
If you also have this thing in your mind and you do not know about them then this post is for you. What does “K” or “M” behind numbers mean? On the Internet, 1K is used to represent 1 thousand and 10K is used to represent 10 thousand, similarly, 1M is used to represent 1 million.
These abbreviations are commonly used to represent follower counts in a more compact form. K Followers: "K" stands for thousand, so if someone has 5K followers, it means they have 5,000 followers.M Followers: "M" stands for million, so if someone has 2M followers, it means they have 2 million followers.
When we want to denote the value in thousand then we simply write k in front of the number. For example- if we are saying that I have 10k followers on Instagram then simply it means that I have 10000 followers on Instagram. Letter 'k' is derived from the Greek word 'kilo' which means 1000 and kilo is abbreviated as 'k'
The "K" on Instagram stands for "thousand." It is often used as a shorthand to refer to the number of followers an Instagram account has. For example, an account with 100,000 followers might be referred to as having "100K" followers.
M and MM are roman numerals where M is one thousand and MM is intended to denote "one thousand thousands." K comes from kilo which is the unit prefix in metric systems to indicate "times one thousand." The corresponding prefix for million is M. So you should use either K and M or M and MM, but do not mix the two.
What does “K” or “M” behind numbers mean? On the Internet, 1K is used to represent 1 thousand and 10K is used to represent 10 thousand, similarly, 1M is used to represent 1 million. You must have understood this thing easily because “M” means Million, so “M” would be used for million.
When a girl says, “K,” it means she's upset with you. It's notorious how “K” is used as a means of expression for anger and frustration. When a girl says K, she has had enough and can't talk about it anymore. ... When she says K, she is telling you that she's not going to partake in the argument and frustration.
Passive-Aggressiveness: In certain situations, using "K" can be seen as passive-aggressive. It may imply a lack of interest or indifference towards the sender's message. Some people interpret it as a way of dismissing or downplaying the importance of the conversation [1].
m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI). However, m is also used as an abbreviation for mile. M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity. With money amounts, m or M can mean one million: For example, $5m is five million dollars.
The K in 44.4K likes on TikTok stands for "kilo", which is a metric prefix that means 1,000. So, 44.4K likes is equivalent to 44,400 likes. This is a common way to abbreviate large numbers on the internet, especially on social media platforms like TikTok.
1M followers on Instagram means that the account has reached the milestone of having one million people following it. The letter "M" stands for "million," so 1M is equivalent to 1,000,000.
K comes from the Greek world "kilo" which means one thousand and is used in metric / decimal systems. The corresponding prefix for one million is M. An amount in the accounting and financial world shown as $14K would equate to $14,000.00.
Tap "Edit Profile."In the "Bio" section, replace the full number of your followers with its "K-system" equivalent. For example, if you have 10,000 followers, you would write "10K."Tap.
Passive-Aggressiveness: In certain situations, using "K" can be seen as passive-aggressive. It may imply a lack of interest or indifference towards the sender's message. Some people interpret it as a way of dismissing or downplaying the importance of the conversation [1].
'K' is short form for Okay or ok. If she uses 'K' very rarely or its relevant to the situation or sentence then feel that everything is fine. If she keep on tells 'K' then there are high chances that you're irritating her and she's not interested in talking to you.
Address: 2033 Gerhold Pine, Port Jocelyn, VA 12101-5654
Phone: +8524399971620
Job: Central Manufacturing Supervisor
Hobby: Jogging, Metalworking, Tai chi, Shopping, Puzzles, Rock climbing, Crocheting
Introduction: My name is Edmund Hettinger DC, I am a adventurous, colorful, gifted, determined, precious, open, colorful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
