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

Woolley shared a photo of the two posing side-by-side at the event on Instagram with brown heart and wilting rose emojis as the caption. —Emma Kershaw, PEOPLE, 12 June 2026

Musk re-shared a photo on X with the crying-laughing emoji alongside a fire emoji. —Ashley Capoot,cj Haddad,samantha Subin,lora Kolodny, CNBC, 12 June 2026

His social media bio is wordless; there is just a ninja emoji. —New York Times, 10 June 2026

Apple previously rolled out features for translating speech, helping users search for content displayed on their iPhone’s screen and generating custom emojis. —Lisa Eadicicco, CNN Money, 8 June 2026

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