noun
- a combination of keyboard characters (such as 🙂 or :)) used in electronic communication to represent a facial expression or emotion
Usage: informal; commonly used in text messages, emails, and online chat
Examples
- She added a smiley emoticon to the end of her text message.
- The emoticon 🙁 shows sadness or disappointment.
- He used the emoticon XD to indicate he was laughing hard.
- Emoticons help convey tone in written messages where facial expressions are not visible.
- The emoticon 😉 is often used to show that something was said as a joke.
- Before emojis became popular, emoticons were the main way to express emotions online.