emoji

Four emojis: 🍇, 😂, 🙄, and 🐙

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”). The word is etymologically unrelated to emotion and emoticon, but the coincidental phonetic resemblance may have facilitated its adoption into English.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈməʊdʒi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈmoʊd͡ʒi/, /iˈmoʊd͡ʒi/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊdʒi
• Hyphenation: emo‧ji

emoji (plural emojis or emoji)

1. A digital graphic icon with a unique code point used to represent a concept, object, person, animal or place, originally used in Japanese text messaging but since adopted internationally in other contexts such as social media. Or, by extension, any non-standard emoji-like image inserted inline in text, i.e. an image emoticon.

   Coordinate terms: emoticon, kaomoji, sticker

   • 2002, Language International: The Business Resource for a Multilingual Age, volume 14, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 45:

     In order to communicate quickly, many mobile phone users use emoji characters (similar to emoticons) while sending messages. Service providers have also created a set of emoji characters and have added support for it.

   • 2010 April 17, Martin Bryant, “Twitter Reveals Details of New ‘Annotated Tweets’ Feature”, in The Next Web‎, archived from the original on 22 February 2017:

     One of the most exciting announcements at Twitter's Chirp conference this week was "Annotated Tweets". […] The data attached doesn't have to be simple text. Twitter suggests examples such as MIDI data (for music) or emoji (for fancy emoticons).

   • 2011 April 5, Sam Biddle, “IRL Emojis: Our New Favourite Way to Waste Time on the Phone”, in Gizmodo‎, archived from the original on 20 March 2013:

     So what do a bunch of dudes with iPhones do when they haven't eaten all day, are waiting at your restaurant table, starving, annoyed, and need to pass the time. They innovate. They bring emojis to life. In public. […] Give it a shot – it's probably the one semi-practical thing you can do with an emoji […].

   • 2017, Marcel Danesi, “Emoji Grammar”, in The Semiotics of Emoji (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics), London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 77:

     Like any natural language grammar, the distribution of emoji in texts, as well as the construction of phrases and sentences with emoji symbols in them, implies a systematic structure, otherwise it would be impossible to literally "read" the emoji texts.

   • 2017 August, Vyvyan Evans, “What’s in a Word?”, in The Emoji Code: The Linguistics behind Smiley Faces and Scaredy Cats, 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, page 102:

     At present, Emoji functions not to replace the linguistic mode, but to complement it – the good old-fashioned English word is not going to be in danger any time soon. Emoji enables, arguably for the first time, a multimodal component to text-based digital communication, providing a code that fills out the communicative message in the linguistic mode, conveyed through text.

   • 2018 March 24, “Apple Wants to Introduce New Emojis for Disabled People”, in BBC News‎, archived from the original on 9 July 2018:

     Apple wants to introduce new emojis to better represent people with disabilities. A guide dog, a wheelchair user and prosthetic limbs are just some of the symbols it's suggested.

   • 2023 July 17, Benjamin Laker, “Emojis in the Modern Workplace: A Psychological Perspective”, in Psychology Today‎:

     In addition to promoting efficient communication, emojis foster a sense of camaraderie and unity among coworkers. This was demonstrated during the initial stages of the pandemic when Slack employees used the ❤️ emoji to express solidarity and emotional support.

• mojibake

• emoji on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• ojime

Finnish Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^fi

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈemoji/,
• Rhymes: -emoji
• Hyphenation^(key): emo‧ji

emoji

1. emoji.

• “emoji”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

French Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^fr

• émoji

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

• IPA^(key): /e.mo.(d)ʒi/

• Audio (Switzerland):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i

emoji m (plural emojis)

1. emoji (“digital graphic icon used to represent a concept or object”)

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^id

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”). The apparent connection to emotion and emoticon is coincidental.

• IPA^(key): /e.mo.d͡ʒi/
• Hyphenation: é‧mo‧ji

emoji

1. A digital graphic icon with a unique code point used to represent a concept or object, originally used in Japanese text messaging but since adopted internationally in other contexts such as social media.

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^it

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

• IPA^(key): /eˈmɔ.d͡ʒi/
• Rhymes: -ɔdʒi

emoji f or m (invariable)

1. emoji

• emoji in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

emoji

1. Rōmaji transcription of えもじ

Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^pt

Borrowed from English emoji, from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

emoji m (plural emojis)

1. emoji (“digital graphic icon used to represent a concept or object”)

Romanian Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^ro

Borrowed from English emoji, from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

• IPA^(key): /e.ˈmo.d͡ʒi/, /e.ˈmo.ʒi/
• Hyphenation: e‧mo‧ji

emoji n (plural emojiuri)

1. emoji (“digital graphic icon used to represent a concept or object”)

• emoji in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^es

• emoyi

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

• IPA^(key): /eˈmoxi/
  • Rhymes: -oxi
  • Syllabification: e‧mo‧ji

• • Rhymes: -oʝi

emoji m (plural emojis)

1. emoji (“digital graphic icon used to represent a concept or object”)

• “emoji”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

emoji class IX (plural emoji class X)

1. emoji (“digital graphic icon used to represent a concept or object”).

emoji c

1. an emoji

• emoji in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• emoji in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

Turkish Wikipedia has an article on:

emoji

Wikipedia ^tr

From French émoji, from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

• IPA^(key): /e.mɔ.ʒi/

emoji (definite accusative emojiyi, plural emojiler)

1. emoji (“digital graphic icon used to represent a concept or object”)