Emoji vs. Emoticon – How to Use Each Correctly

/ / Uncategorized

What’s the Difference Between Emoji and Emoticon?

Emoji and emoticon both start with the same letters, and they even have similar meanings. However, there is an important distinction between the two words that makes it impossible to use them both interchangeably.

Emoji is a noun that refers to a small digital picture or symbol that people use to communicate in written, digital communications. These are especially common in texting.

• At first I thought she was serious but then she sent me a smiley face emoji so I knew she was joking.

Emoticon is also a noun that refers to a symbol that people use to communicate in written, digital communications. The main difference is that emoticons are formed by keyboard sequences rather than digital illustrations.

• People who use a colon and a parenthesis to make a happy face emoticon on work emails can be perceived as unprofessional.

Let’s practice a few ways you can use these words correctly in English.

Using Emoji in a Sentence

When to use emoji: Emoji is a noun that refers to a small image, like a pictograph, that people use in electronic communication. Emoji can be the singular or the plural form, although emojis is also an acceptable plural form of the word.

For example,

• Many people use emoji to add the emotion that they are feeling to their written message. This is because writing cannot include the inflection and intonation of speech, which people usually rely on to judge whether someone is being sarcastic.
• Emojis can be useful to communicate with a single picture what would take multiple words to say.

The use of emojis is considered to be unprofessional in a work context. However, it is very common, acceptable, and even useful to use them in texts between friends. Emojis originated from Japan, and comes from e, meaning picture and moji, meaning character.

Using Emoticon in a Sentence

When to use emoticon: Emoticon is also a noun that refers to a symbol that expresses an idea or word without writing it out. However, emoticons are composed of keyboard characters rather than digital images.

For example:

• The most emoticon is the smiley face, which uses punctuation marks to form the eyes and mouth.
• There are many elaborate emoticons that use punctuation marks, letters, and numbers from the keyboard.

While emojis can represent many words as pictures, emoticons usually represent emotions specifically.

Remembering Emoji vs. Emoticon

Emoji and emoticon can be hard to keep straight, since they both start with emo and often deal with representations of emotion. It also doesn’t help that emoticon ends with icon, since both emojis and emoticons are a type of icon or symbol.

However, it is still possible to use the spelling of these words to remember which is which.

Emoji contains the letter j, which can help you remember that emojis originated in Japan, a country that starts with the letter J. Emojis are cuter than emoticons, and Japan is famous for having many cute things such as Hello Kitty.

Outside Examples

• But for many language experts and social commentators, this form of communication is often given short shrift. A common prejudice is that an emoji is the equivalent of an adolescent grunt, a step back to the dark ages of illiteracy, making us poorer communicators in the process — maybe even dumber, too. –New York Post
• “Kids have limited ways to express their personalities,” Bodge said. “That’s where bright and exciting sneakers come in.” One example: Skechers’ Twinkle Toes line, which includes light-up sneakers covered in neon-colored cats, glitter emojis, metallic sequins and iridescent unicorns. –Denver Post
• According to a recent study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, a smiley emoji in a business setting emits a feeling of incompetence while also not achieving the very feeling the emoticon was trying to convey in the first place: friendliness. –New York Daily News
• Seems that “sliding in that smiley emoticon, while well-intentioned, is likely to undermine you professionally.” –USA Today

Quiz: Emoticon vs. Emoji

Instructions: Fill in the blank with the correct word, either emoticon or emoji, in the correct form.

• My mom always puts 🙂 in her texts. I’m glad she is using ________________.
• The smiley face, 😊, is an example of an ________________________.
• Most smartphones have libraries of ______________ that come installed with the phone.

See answers below.

Article Summary

Should I use emoji or emoticon? These words both have similar meanings relating to pictorial or symbolic representations of written words. However, there is a distinction between the two words so they are not exactly the same.

• Emoji means an illustrated example made from a small digital image.
• Emoticon means symbols, usually of an emotion, made from characters on a keyboard.

Be careful to know which of the two words has which meaning.

Answers from Quiz

• emoticons
• emoji
• emoji or emojis (either is correct)