Not for the first time, a Donald Trump tweet has lit up the internet. But this time, users the world over have been left scratching their heads over "covfefe": a bizarre word apparently created by the president.

"Despite the constant negative press covfefe," read the U.S. leader's short tweet sent early Wednesday.

Was it an acronym? A secret message? Or just a typo?

Wags around the world weighed in with biting sarcasm, and #covfefe quickly became the top trending item on Twitter.

Taking aim at Trump's controversial relations with Russia, one woman on Twitter quipped that she had translated "covfefe" into Russian, attaching a doctored image that showed the gibberish word to be a translation of "I resign."

Before long, the word had its own Urban Dictionary definition: "When you want to say 'coverage' but your hands are too small to hit all the letters on your keyboard."

One user joked that "covfefe" is already a popular name for babies in states that voted for Trump.

Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster checked in with an eye-rolling tweet about people looking up "covfefe" on its website.

The Regent's English Language Center in London wrote: "To all of our English language students, we can confirm that 'covfefe' is not an English word. Yet."

At 0910 GMT Trump's "covfefe" tweet had more than 120,000 retweets and had been shared 39,000 times, according to Twitter figures.

Then, around 0945 GMT, more than five hours after it was posted, the mysterious tweet vanished.

Soon after Trump himself joined the deciphering game. "Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!" he tweeted, in an unusual display of self-depreciating humor.

Since entering office, Trump has used Twitter to issue declarations on everything from Arnold Schwarzeneggertarget="_blank"'>