DOS

(pronounced: dahss)

In online jargon it means Dozing Off Soon, or Dad Over Shoulder. As told by Will, 15, from Charleston, SC, "Guys will type it if they're talking to a girlfriend online. Maybe they're embarrassed and don't want their parents to know."

It’s an acronym used in texting, online chat, instant messaging, email, blogs, newsgroups and social media postings.

As a technology term "DOS" can refer to any operating system, but it usually refers to MS-DOS. It has been widely acknowledged that DOS is insufficient for modern computer applications, due to its limitations: it's a 16-bit operating system that doesn't support multiple users or multitasking.

The term "DoS" (when spelled with a lower case "o") refers to "Denial of Service." For more information on a Denial of Service attack, see DDoS.

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