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
Colorado coach Deion Sanders then quoted Riddick’s post and added the ubiquitous eyeballs emoji.
—Joseph Person, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele may have found the best description for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s new approach to dictatorial regimes: a laughing emoji.
—Mary Ellen Klas, Mercury News, 12 Apr. 2025
And when one commenter on her Not Gonna Lie account commented with a vomiting emoji, Kylie stepped in to quickly shut down the negativity.
—Rachel McRady, People.com, 10 Apr. 2025
Almost immediately, the little avatars pop up, followed by the reactions—the teardrop emojis and the misspelled and mispunctuated condolences.
—David Bezmozgis, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2025
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Joseph Person, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele may have found the best description for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s new approach to dictatorial regimes: a laughing emoji.
—Mary Ellen Klas, Mercury News, 12 Apr. 2025
And when one commenter on her Not Gonna Lie account commented with a vomiting emoji, Kylie stepped in to quickly shut down the negativity.
—Rachel McRady, People.com, 10 Apr. 2025
Almost immediately, the little avatars pop up, followed by the reactions—the teardrop emojis and the misspelled and mispunctuated condolences.
—David Bezmozgis, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for emoji
Cite this Entry
“Emoji.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emoji. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
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