emoticon

Blend of emotion +‎ icon. Unrelated to emoji.

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪˈmoʊtəˌkɑn/, /əˈmoʊtəˌkɑn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈməʊtɪˌkɒn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

emoticon (plural emoticons)

1. A graphical representation of a particular emotion of the writer, used especially in SMS, email, or other electronic communication.
   2. A graphic made up of text characters to represent such emotion; a smiley.
      • [1992 December 1, William Grimes, “Computer as a Cultural Tool: Chatter Mounts on Every Topic”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 23 July 2021, page C13:

        A remark intended humorously is often indicated by the letter G in parentheses, for "grin," or by a sideways happy face built from punctuation marks. Such symbols are known as emoticons.]

      • 2006, Joseph B. Walther, “Nonverbal dynamics in computer-mediated communication”, in Valerie Manusov, Miles Patterson, editors, The SAGE Handbook of Nonverbal Communication, →ISBN, page 470:

        In a 4 by 2 experimental procedure, :) ;) :( or no emoticon were inserted alternately in simulated e-mail message mock-ups

      • 2007, M. Yanagisawa, M. Kobayashi, Y. Kato, S. Kato, D. Scott, “Research on the emotions interpreted from emoticons in Japanese cellular telephone email”, in T. Hirashima, U. Hoppe, S. Young, editors, Supporting Learning Flow through Integrative Technologies, →ISBN, page 271:

        The range of interpretations was surprising broad, for instance the emoticon (-.-) had 16 possible interpretations

      • 2021 October 8, Ori Manor Zuckerman, “The Importance Of Subtext In Digital Communications”, in Forbes‎^[2], archived from the original on 4 June 2025:

        When receiving a message like “We need to talk :(,” the emoticon implies that the conversation will involve bad or sad news. But a message like “I’m going to kill you :)” is most likely sarcastic. With text communication, in particular, it can be incredibly hard to understand intentionality — especially when there’s humor and sarcasm involved. Because of this, emoji and emoticons can be extremely useful to attach an element of feeling and emotion to the message.

   4. An image or graphic icon used to represent such emotions; an emoji.
      • 2007, Loren Abdulezer, Susan Abdulezer, Howard Dammond, Skype for Dummies, →ISBN, page 61:

        In addition to placing emoticons by clicking icons in the pop-up panel shown in Figure 4-2, you can enter the text representation in your text chat window. For example, to show the image of the emoticon with sunglasses, you enter (cool).

• Emoticons appendix
• emotag
• emoji
• kaomoji

• come into

Borrowed from English emoticon.

emoticon m (invariable)

1. emoticon

• metonico

Unadapted borrowing from English emoticon.

• Rhymes: -õ
• Hyphenation: e‧mo‧ti‧con

emoticon m (plural emoticons)

1. emoticon (simple drawing using text characters)

• “emoticon”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from English emoticon.

• IPA^(key): /e.mo.ti.ˈkon/
• Rhymes: -on
• Hyphenation: e‧mo‧ti‧con

emoticon n (plural emoticoane)

1. emoticon