emoji

noun

emo·​ji ē-ˈmō-jē 

plural emoji or emojis

: any of various small images, symbols, or icons used in text fields in electronic communication (as in text messages, email, 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

Examples of emoji in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Her brother and Inaba’s co-judge Derek Hough shared two red heart emojis. —Monica Mercuri, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025

Not with an explicit farewell but with a two-day pause followed by a thumbs-up-emoji reaction. —Reuven Perlman, New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2025

Nearly 200,000 people were tuned in as Vance began speaking and the live chat flooded with American flag emojis. —Erin Glynn, Cincinnati Enquirer, 15 Sep. 2025

LeBron shared a photo of Savannah, 39, at a romantic anniversary dinner and tagged her account, adding a handful of heart eye emojis and brown hearts. —Natasha Dye, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Japanese, literally, "pictograph," from e "picture, drawing" + moji "letter, character"

First Known Use

1997, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for emoji

• koji
• logie
• shoji
• pedagogy

Kids Definition

emoji

noun

emo·​ji

ē-ˈmō-jē

plural emoji or emojis

: any of various small images, symbols, or icons used in electronic communication (as email) to express the feelings or attitude of the writer or to present information concisely or playfully