Definition of "emoticon"

A graphical representation of a particular emotion of the writer, used especially in SMS, email, or other electronic communication.

1. A graphic made up of text characters to represent such emotion; a smiley.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.]

     , page C13

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

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

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

     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, page 271

2. An image or graphic icon used to represent such emotions; an emoji.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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).

     2007, Loren Abdulezer, Susan Abdulezer, Howard Dammond, Skype for Dummies, page 61