Definition: emoticon

(EMOTional ICON) A pictorial expression of feeling in a message rendered as text. Carnegie Mellon professor Scott Fahlman is credited with creating the first emoticon (the "smiley") using the text characters :-) in an online message in 1982.

Pronounced "e-mo-tih-con," the symbols are stored in the Unicode character set. Word processing, email and other character-based programs may automatically convert emoticon text into an icon. See emoji, emotag, Unicode and alphanumerish.

 Emoticon   Meaning

  :-)     smiley, happy face

  :-(     frown

  ;-)     wink

  :-D     big smile

  :-O     mouth open in amazement

  :-Q     tongue hanging out in nausea

  :-{)    moustache

  :-{)}   moustache and beard

  8-)     wears glasses

  (-:     left handed or Australian

  :*)     red nosed, suggesting inebriation

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Definition: emoticon