Definition of emoji
emoji
oremojis
: any of various small images, symbols, or icons used in text fields in electronic communication (as in text messages, e-mail, and social media) to express the emotional attitude of the writer, convey information succinctly, communicate a message playfully without using words, etc. The function of emoji, as [emoji developer Shigetaka] Kurita describes it—adding subtle emotional emphasis to a sentence in text—isn't too different from that of emoticons, the frowny and smiley faces that people have been making out of punctuation since the mid-1990s. — Britt Peterson — compare emoticon
From the M-W Editors
Recent Examples of emoji from the Web
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But the NFL was all over it, Tweeting out an image that tried to match up every team with its own emoji.
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As much competition as there currently seems to be, the future that both Crone and Baker foresee for digital payments leaves plenty of room for emoji, but on the whole is more ☮️ than ⚔.
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Text the cherry blossom emoji , for instance, and you will be treated to a 2007 photograph by the Japanese artist HiroyoKaneko, which shows a group of people lounging under a cherry blossom tree.
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There have been signs, scriptures and emojis along with messages and symbols of hope.
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Ping-Pong For Hobbyists Finally a reason to bust out the Ping-Pong paddle emoji.
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A round of applause emoji for Clarkson and her body positivity.
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That led to Heat center Hassan Whiteside, who was among Heat players to meet Saturday with Hayward to offer his own emoji counter on Twitter.
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In fact, over on Instagram, Lea made sure to let everyone know that she's been living her best peach emoji life in Hawaii.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'emoji.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of emoji
borrowed from Japanese, literally, “pictograph,” from e “picture, drawing” + moji “letter, character”
Seen and Heard
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