emoticon

AI overview

An emoticon is a simple combination of keyboard characters, like :) or :(, that represents a facial expression or emotion in written communication. It matters because it helps convey tone and feeling in text-based messages where facial expressions and voice aren't available, making online communication clearer and more personal.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Described at

UTS #51: Unicode Emoji

unicode.org →

Link to a page describing this subject · 40,000 chars · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Image: Caret nose "dorito face" smile emoticon - upright.svg

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Commons gallery: Emoticon
Commons category: Emoticons
described at URL: unicode.org/reports/tr51/proposed.html#def_emoticon

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Article

21 sections

Contents

History
ASCII art and faces (pre-1981)
ASCII emoticons - First generation (1982–mid-1990s)
Portrait emoticons - Second generation (1990s–present)
Styles
Western
Kaomoji (Japan ASCII movement)
2channel
Korean
Chinese ideographic
Posture emoticons
Orz
o7
Multimedia variations
Intellectual property rights
Unicode
See also
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
External links

An emoticon (, , rarely , ), portmanteau of emotion and icon, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers and letters—to express a person's feelings, mood or reaction, without needing to describe it in detail.