emoticon

plural emoticons

1. A graphical representation of a particular emotion of the writer, used especially in SMS, email, or other electronic communication.
   1. A graphic made up of text characters to represent such emotion; a smiley.

      The range of interpretations was surprising broad, for instance the emoticon (-.-) had 16 possible interpretations

      2007, M. Yanagisawa, M. Kobayashi, Y. Kato, S. Kato, D. Scott, “Research on the emotions interpreted from emoticons in Japanese cellular telephone email”, in T. Hirashima, U. Hoppe, S. Young, editors, Supporting Learning Flow through Integrative Technologies, →ISBN, page 271

      3 more examples

      A remark intended humorously is often indicated by the letter G in parentheses, for "grin," or by a sideways happy face built from punctuation marks. Such symbols are known as emoticons.

      [1992 December 1, William Grimes, “Computer as a Cultural Tool: Chatter Mounts on Every Topic”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 23 Jul 2021, page C13

      In a 4 by 2 experimental procedure, :) ;) :( or no emoticon were inserted alternately in simulated e-mail message mock-ups

      2006, Joseph B. Walther, “Nonverbal dynamics in computer-mediated communication”, in Valerie Manusov, Miles Patterson, editors, The SAGE Handbook of Nonverbal Communication, →ISBN, page 470

      When receiving a message like “We need to talk :(,” the emoticon implies that the conversation will involve bad or sad news. But a message like “I’m going to kill you :)” is most likely sarcastic. With text communication, in particular, it can be incredibly hard to understand intentionality — especially when there’s humor and sarcasm involved. Because of this, emoji and emoticons can be extremely useful to attach an element of feeling and emotion to the message.

      2021 October 8, Ori Manor Zuckerman, “The Importance Of Subtext In Digital Communications”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2025

   2. An image or graphic icon used to represent such emotions; an emoji.

      In addition to placing emoticons by clicking icons in the pop-up panel shown in Figure 4-2, you can enter the text representation in your text chat window. For example, to show the image of the emoticon with sunglasses, you enter (cool).

      2007, Loren Abdulezer, Susan Abdulezer, Howard Dammond, Skype for Dummies, →ISBN, page 61