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
Britt PetersonExamples of emoji in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Comments also support attachments, emoji reactions, and hashtags for tracking and indexing feedback.
—Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 9 Apr. 2024
Family friend Paris Hilton also commented with a heart-eye emoji.
—Esme Mazzeo, Peoplemag, 7 Apr. 2024
History becomes an emoji, its flesh tone changing as needed.
—Kabir Chibber, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2024
The Lakers had just gotten smacked in their previous two games, with James simply tweeting the hourglass emoji.
—Dan Woike, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2024
The giveaway: the text was punctuated with a ring emoji.
—Alli Rosenbloom, CNN, 28 Mar. 2024
Bieber teased the collection on her own Instagram a few days earlier, tagging the photographer and the glam team, with just a heart emoji for a caption.
—Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 28 Mar. 2024
One egregious example cited by the advocacy group highlights an Instagram post that depicts a disturbing image: a trans person’s mangled corpse sprawled on the ground, appearing to have been fatally assaulted with stones, symbolically replaced by laughing emojis.
—Ashlee Marie Preston, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
Patrick tagged his wife Brittany Mahomes, also 28, in the video and added three crying with laughter emojis to the caption.
—Gabrielle Rockson, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024
Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 9 Apr. 2024
Family friend Paris Hilton also commented with a heart-eye emoji.
—Esme Mazzeo, Peoplemag, 7 Apr. 2024
History becomes an emoji, its flesh tone changing as needed.
—Kabir Chibber, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2024
The Lakers had just gotten smacked in their previous two games, with James simply tweeting the hourglass emoji.
—Dan Woike, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2024
The giveaway: the text was punctuated with a ring emoji.
—Alli Rosenbloom, CNN, 28 Mar. 2024
Bieber teased the collection on her own Instagram a few days earlier, tagging the photographer and the glam team, with just a heart emoji for a caption.
—Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 28 Mar. 2024
One egregious example cited by the advocacy group highlights an Instagram post that depicts a disturbing image: a trans person’s mangled corpse sprawled on the ground, appearing to have been fatally assaulted with stones, symbolically replaced by laughing emojis.
—Ashlee Marie Preston, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
Patrick tagged his wife Brittany Mahomes, also 28, in the video and added three crying with laughter emojis to the caption.
—Gabrielle Rockson, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'emoji.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near emoji
Cite this Entry
“Emoji.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emoji. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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