Text message words are bound 4 OED

Dictionaries of the future may include mobile phone text message abbreviations in response to their common usage in everyday life, English language experts at Leicester University claim.

The substitution of numbers for words or parts of words, such as 4 instead of "for" and str8 to denote "straight", are strong candidates for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary 's annual "new words" book, they say.

According to Julie Coleman, senior lecturer in English at Leicester and organiser of an international conference on dictionaries at the university that runs from July 15 to 17, students have even begun to use the abbreviations in their essays.