Developer English guide
Coding acronyms in English: LGTM, WIP, PR and more
April 21, 2026
A practical reference of the most common acronyms used in software teams, from code reviews to standups. Learn what they mean and how to use them naturally in English.
Key Takeaways
- LGTM (Looks Good To Me) is the standard approval signal in a code review.
- WIP (Work In Progress) marks a pull request that is not ready to review or merge.
- NIT signals a minor, optional comment that will never block a merge.
- ETA in a software team means 'When will this be ready?' not a travel arrival time.
- AFAIK and IIRC both soften a statement when you are not 100% sure about the facts.
Code reviews
These acronyms appear constantly in pull request comments, commit messages, and review tools like GitHub and GitLab.
Used to approve a pull request. Tells the author the code is ready to merge.
“The logic is solid and tests pass. LGTM, merging.”
Marks a PR that is still being worked on. Use it to share progress or get early feedback without requesting a formal review.
“WIP: don't merge yet, I'm still refactoring the auth flow.”
Signals a minor, optional suggestion in a code review. The author can ignore it without blocking the merge.
“NIT: rename this variable to something more descriptive.”
Used when proposing a change or design decision and inviting the team to comment before committing to it.
“RFC: I'm proposing we move to a monorepo. Feedback welcome.”
Confirms you received and understood a comment or request. Signals you will act on it.
“ACK. I'll address those comments before re-requesting review.”
The opposite of ACK. Used to reject or block a proposal, often with a reason.
“NACK. This approach will break backward compatibility.”
Chat and communication
You'll see these in Slack, Teams, and any async written communication within a software team.
Tells the team you are temporarily away from your computer and unavailable to respond.
“AFK for 30 minutes, grabbing lunch. Back at 2pm.”
Used in Slack or email to say you are not working, typically for a full day or longer.
“I'm OOO next Friday. Ping Carlos if anything is urgent.”
Used in a call or chat when you need to step away briefly and will return in a few minutes.
“BRB, joining the standup.”
Shares information without requiring any action. Used to keep the team informed.
“FYI: the staging deployment is currently down for maintenance.”
Introduces a related side note that is not the main point of the message.
“BTW, the API endpoint changed. Make sure to update your .env.”
Signals urgency. Use it carefully: when everything is urgent, nothing is.
“Can you review this PR ASAP? We need to deploy before EOD.”
Introduces an honest opinion, sometimes one that goes against the consensus.
“TBH, I think this solution adds more complexity than it removes.”
Flags that what follows is a personal opinion, not a fact. Useful for avoiding debates.
“IMO we should start with a simple REST endpoint before adding GraphQL.”
A softer version of IMO. Signals humility when sharing a view that others may disagree with.
“IMHO the current architecture is already hard to reason about.”
Softens a statement when you believe something is true but cannot fully confirm it.
“AFAIK the rate limit is 100 requests per minute, but double-check the docs.”
Used when relying on memory rather than verified information. Signals the listener should double-check.
“IIRC we disabled that feature flag in production last quarter.”
Adds context or a counterpoint without insisting the listener must act on it.
“FWIW, I tried that approach last year and it caused flaky tests.”
A short summary of a long message. Put it at the top for quick readers, or at the bottom as a conclusion.
“TL;DR: the migration failed because of a missing index on the users table.”
Used when a solution worked for you but may not work for everyone, due to different environments or setups.
“This config works for me locally, but YMMV depending on your OS.”
Asks someone to message you privately instead of in a public channel.
“DM me the credentials — don't post them in the channel.”
Project and planning
Common in standups, tickets, and project management conversations.
Asks or gives a time estimate for when something will be ready. Very common in standups and ticket comments.
“What's the ETA on the hotfix? The client is waiting.”
Marks something that has not been decided yet. Avoid leaving too many TBDs in a spec or ticket.
“The release date is TBD — we're waiting on QA sign-off.”
A small, quick implementation to test whether an idea is technically feasible before committing to it.
“Let's build a POC before we commit to this architecture.”
The smallest version of a product that delivers real value to users. Scope is intentionally limited to ship faster.
“The MVP just needs login, a dashboard, and export. No notifications yet.”
Sets a deadline at the end of the current working day. Be aware it can mean different times across time zones.
“Can you push the fix to staging by EOD?”
Sets a deadline at the end of the current working week, usually Friday afternoon.
“The design review needs to be done by EOW.”
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Written by
Roxana LafuenteLingua-e's founder
Roxana Lafuente is a software engineer with 8+ years of experience. At the beginning of her career, even though she had already passed the First Certificate in English, she still froze every time she had to speak up in the daily standup. That was a gap nobody was fixing. After 2,000+ standups, she figured out what actually builds fluency: practice that looks like your real work. She built Lingua-e so other developers wouldn't have to take the long road to feel confident working in an international development environment.