emoticon
noun
emo·ti·con
| \ i-ˈmō-ti-ˌkän
\
\
plural emoticons
Definition of emoticon
Examples of emoticon in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Those doodles began to make their way into internet writing with the advent of the first emoticon, : - ), in 1982, and then went on to blossom into the vast expressive form of emoji. — Constance Grady, Vox, "The internet has changed the way we talk. In Because Internet, a linguist shows us how.," 2 Aug. 2019 The first use of smiley faces, often composed of a colon, dash and close parenthesis, now called emoticons, was in the 1960s. — Sophia Kunthara, SFChronicle.com, "Who needs words when you have emoji?," 6 Aug. 2019 Twitter feeds quickly filled with teary, wailing GIFs and heart emoticons cracked in two — pithy punctuation about anemic 401(k) accounts being whittled down to wisps. — Tiffany Hsu, New York Times, "For Millennial Investors, a Harsh Lesson in Market Gyrations," 7 Feb. 2018 In the aftermath, some Facebook executives have taken to Twitter for a public charm offensive, sending pithy phrases and emoticons to reporters who cover the company. — Sheera Frenkel And Nellie Bowles, New York Times, "Facebook Employees in an Uproar Over Executive’s Leaked Memo," 30 Mar. 2018 Read more: One of the early digital visuals was the emoticon, a pictorial representation of a facial expression more commonly known as smiley faces. — Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, "Smartphones ushering in a language of punctuation marks, symbols and animated pictures," 2 Nov. 2017 By the 1990s, the Japanese turned the sideways emoticon into a single character, now known as an emoji, and a bunch of symbols. — Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, "Smartphones ushering in a language of punctuation marks, symbols and animated pictures," 2 Nov. 2017 Podcasts, film clips, emoticons, and emojis are the new pictographs of an increasingly illiterate public. — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, "Status Quo Blues," 17 Oct. 2017 Overuse of fancy fonts, colors, and emoticons turned plenty of AIM profiles into crimes against graphic design. — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, "Saying goodbye to the proto-social network of AOL Instant Messenger," 8 Oct. 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'emoticon.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for emoticon
emoticon
noun
English Language Learners Definition of emoticon
: a group of keyboard characters that are used to represent a facial expression (such as a smile or frown)
See the full definition for emoticon in the English Language Learners Dictionary
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