emoji.
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.
Meaning & usage
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.
Any non-standard emoji-like image inserted inline in text, e.g. an image emoticon.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Middle Chinese 繪 (hwajH)bor. Japanese 絵 (e) Middle Chinese 文字 (mjun dziH)bor. Japanese 文字 (monji) Japanese 文字 (moji) Japanese 絵文字 (emoji)bor. English emoji Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”). False cognate of English emotion and emoticon.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.