What does CW mean on TikTok?

While browsing TikTok, you may have encountered the term ‘CW’ in videos, captions, or comments — but what does it mean? Here’s what you need to know.

TikTok is one of the biggest hubs for viral content online, and if you’ve used the app for any length of time you’ll know that there is a huge amount of content being posted each day for a variety of communities and genres.

People on TikTok, like any other social media platform, use a number of different slang terms and acronyms, but these can sometimes be confusing if you’re out of the loop.

You may have seen the term CW used in videos, captions, comments, or hashtags on the app, and are now wondering what it indicates.

Here’s everything to know about what CW means.

What does CW mean on TikTok?

On social media, CW usually stands for ‘Content Warning.’ This is used as a way to warn people that the video they are about to view contains discussions of topics that could be sensitive for some users, or potentially graphic images.

You may see CW or Content Warning included in the in-video captions, the video description, and even the tags or comments. Sometimes the term will be followed by something to indicate what the content is, but sometimes the word will just be used on its own.

Similarly, you might see the term TW which stands for ‘Trigger Warning,’ and can be used in essentially the same way.

These terms aren’t just used on TikTok, but also on a variety of other social media platforms, so it’s worth taking note when you see someone put CW in a video or post.

If there are any other terms used on TikTok that you don’t understand the meaning of, you can check out our guide here to learn all about the app’s most popular slang terms.