xswl 笑死我了 xiào sǐ wǒ le
“Laughing me to death” — the Chinese LMAO.
The short answer
OnlineNow commonChecked November 2026
xswl abbreviates 笑死我了, “laughing me to death”. It is the standard reaction to something funny — China's LMAO, in four letters.
In a chat
- 亮亮 Liangliang
我刚才在地铁上睡着了，坐过了五站。
I fell asleep on the subway and went five stops too far.
- 灯灯 Dengdeng
xswl，你又要迟到了吧？
LMAO, so you'll be late again?
- 亮亮 Liangliang
别笑了，快帮我跟老板说一下。
Stop laughing and tell the boss for me.
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How to reply
哈哈哈，笑死。
Hahaha, I'm dying.
When not to use it
- It laughs at something. When a friend shares bad news, xswl sounds cruel.
- Type it. Do not say the letters aloud.
What it means
Chinese loves the “to death” figure of speech — 忙死了 (busy to death), 热死了 (hot to death) — and laughter took the same shape long before the abbreviation existed. 笑死我了 is simply “I'm dying of laughter”, and xswl is its typing shortcut.
Like LMAO, it ranges from polite chuckle to genuine howl depending on context. Doubling it — xswlxswl — signals the real thing.
How people use it
Drop it after anything funny, alone or in a sentence: 这个视频xswl, “this video is killing me”. It is for friends and comment sections, not for emails to teachers.
The full phrase 笑死我了 also lives on its own in speech — the abbreviation is for typing, and nobody says “xswl” out loud without irony.
Where it comes from
Nobody knows where the abbreviation started. It is part of the pinyin-initial family that also includes yyds, zqsg, and nsdd.
For the full cast of that family, see the pinyin abbreviation guide.
In use
2 examples他把盐当糖放进咖啡，xswl。
He put salt in his coffee thinking it was sugar, I'm dying.
这只猫的睡姿xswlxswl。
The way this cat sleeps is killing me.
The characters
Explore individuallyIndividual character meanings do not always explain the meaning of the whole word.
Sources
This guide is original Dengdeng editorial content, offered under CC BY-SA 4.0. The linked dictionary entries adapt CC-CEDICT under the same license.