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

The social media post even received love from Saturday headliner and legend Erykah Badu, who contributed some applause emojis. —Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2025

Luka Modric wrote alongside a fire emoji on Guler’s Instagram post. —Mario Cortegana, New York Times, 8 July 2025

Hurley shared his photo on her Instagram Stories, pairing it with the most mom reaction possible: a flustered emoji. —Michael Nied, People.com, 8 July 2025

Some replies included emojis, while others did not. —Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 July 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