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What do all the emoticons mean? Smileys from symbols

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. The use of emoticons when communicating in chats, on forums, on social networks, when sending comments on blogs and even in business correspondence at the present stage of Internet development is already quite commonplace. Moreover, emoticons can be displayed both in the form of simple text symbols and in graphic form, which adds the possibility of choice.

Graphic emoticons (emoji, or emoji), which we will talk about in more detail below, appearing in the form of pictures, are displayed by inserting the corresponding codes that were specially added to the official Unicode table so that users can use them almost everywhere to express emotions .

Thus, on the one hand, you can find the code of the smiley you need in a special list to insert it, and on the other hand, in order not to look for the necessary encoding every time, it is quite possible to remember the sequence of simple text characters that reflect the most frequently expressed types of emotional state, and insert them into the text of the message.

Indicating emoticons using text symbols

To begin with, in order to satisfy my perfectionist nature, I would like to say a few words about the history of emoticons. After the great Tim Berners Lee laid the foundation for the development of the modern Internet, people were able to communicate virtually unlimitedly among themselves.

However, on the World Wide Web, from the very beginning, communication was carried out in writing (and even today this type of dialogue is still very popular), and it is very limited in terms of reflecting the emotions of the interlocutor.

Of course, a person who has literary talent and the gift of expressing his feelings through text will not experience problems. But the percentage of such gifted people, as you understand, is very small, which is quite logical, and the problem had to be solved on a mass scale.

Naturally, the question arose of how to smooth out this shortcoming. It is not known for certain who first proposed text signs reflecting this or that emotion.

According to some reports, it was a famous American computer scientist Scott Elliot Fahlman, who proposed using a set of symbols for humorous messages :-), in a different interpretation :) . If you tilt your head to the left, you will see what is essentially a cheerful smiley face:

And for messages containing some kind of negative information that can evoke emotions of the opposite nature, the same Falman came up with another combination of symbols:-(or:(. As a result, if we rotate it 90°, we will see a sad emoticon:

By the way, since the first emoticons primarily identified the emotional background of the interlocutors, they received the name emoticons. This name comes from the abbreviated English expression emot ion icon— an icon with an expression of emotion.

The meaning of emoticons that express emotions through symbols

So, a start has been made in this area, all that remains is to pick up the idea and choose simple text signs with which one could easily and simply reflect other expressions of mood and emotional state. Here are some emoticons from the symbols and their interpretation:

:-) , :) ,) , =) , :c) , :o) , :] , 8) , :?) , :^) or :) - emoticon of happiness or joy;
:-D , :D - a wide smile or uncontrollable laughter;
:"-) , :"-D - laughter to tears;
:-(, :(, =(—sad emoticon made from symbols;
:-C, :C - emoticons made from text characters, indicating intense sadness;
:-o, - boredom;
:_(, :"(, :~(, :*(—crying emoticon;
XD, xD - emoticons with letters that mean ridicule;
>:-D, >:) - options for expressing gloating (evil grin);
:-> - grin;
):-> or ]:-> - insidious smile;
:-/ or:-\ - these emoticons can mean confusion, indecision;
:-|| - anger;
D-: - strong anger
:-E or:E - designation of rage in text characters;
:-| , :-I - this can be deciphered as a neutral attitude;
:-() , :-o , =-O , = O , :-0 , :O - these sets of symbols mean surprise;
8-O or:- , :-() - decoding: extreme degree of amazement (shock);
:-* - gloominess, bitterness;
=P, =-P, :-P - irritation;
xP - disgust;
:-7 - sarcasm;
:-J - irony;
:> - smug;
X(—inflated;
:~- - bitter to tears.

By the way, some emoticons from signs, when inserted, can be displayed in graphic form (this will be discussed in today’s article), but not always and not everywhere.

What do other classic text emoticons mean?

Below I will give a number of simple symbolic emoticons that reflect the state, character traits of people, their attitude towards their interlocutors, emotional actions or gestures, as well as images of creatures, animals and flowers:

;-(— sad joke;
;-) - means a funny joke;
:-@ - cry of anger;
:-P, :-p, :-Ъ - show your tongue, which means licking your lips in anticipation of delicious food;
:-v - talks a lot;
:-* , :-() — kiss;
() - hugs;
; , ;-) , ;) - wink designations;
|-O - surging yawning, which means a desire to sleep;
|-I - sleeping;
|-O - snores;
:-Q - smoker;
:-? - smokes a pipe;
/ — emoticon meaning the interjection “hmmm”;
:-(0) - screams;
:-X - “keep your mouth shut” (means a call for silence;)
:-! - the meaning of nausea or an analogue of the phrase “it makes you sick”;
~:0 — child;
:*), %-) - drunk, intoxicated;
=/ - crazy;
:), :-() - a man with a mustache;
=|:-)= — “Uncle Sam” (this emoticon means a comic image of the US state);
-:-) - punk;
(:-| - monk;
*:O) - clown;
B-) - a man in sunglasses;
B:-) - sunglasses on the head;
8-) - a man with glasses;
8:-) - glasses on the head;
@:-) - a man with a turban on his head;
:-E - this set of symbols denotes a vampire;
8-# - zombies;
@~)~~~~ , @)->-- , @)-v-- - rose;
*->->-- - clove;
<:3>
=8) - pig;
:o/ , :o
:3 - cat;

If you wish, you can invent emoticons yourself by typing certain characters (letters, numbers or symbols) on the keyboard. From the above list it is clear, for example, that using the number “3” you can depict the face of a cat, a dog (as well as, say, a rabbit) or one of the parts of a heart. And emoticons with P mean sticking out tongue. There is room for creativity.

Horizontal Japanese emoticons (kaomoji)

Above were classic emoticons made up of text symbols, which are interpreted and take on the correct shape only if you tilt your head to the left or mentally rotate such an image 90° to the right.

Japanese emoticons are more convenient in this regard; when looking at them, you do not need to tilt your head, because it is immediately clear what each of them means. Kaomoji, as you probably guessed, was first used in Japan and consisted of both standard characters found on any keyboard and the use of hieroglyphs.

Japanese term «顔文字» when translated into Latin it looks like “Kaomoji”. In fact, the phrase “kaomoji” is very close to the concept of “smile” (English smile - smile), since "kao" (顔) means "face" and "moji" (文字)- “symbol”, “letter”.

Even with a quick analysis of the meanings of these terms, it is noticeable that Europeans and residents of most countries where the Latin alphabet is common pay more attention to such an element as the mouth (smile) when expressing emotions. For the Japanese, all components of the face are important, especially the eyes. This is expressed in true (not modified) kaomoji.

Subsequently, Japanese emoticons became widespread in Southeast Asia, and today they are used throughout the world. Moreover, they can consist not only of symbols and hieroglyphs, but are often supplemented, for example, with letters and signs of the Latin or Arabic alphabet. First, let's see what do some simple horizontal text emoticons mean?:

(^_^) or (n_n) - smiling, joyful;
(^____^) - wide smile;
^-^ — happy smiley;
(<_>) , (v_v) - this is how sadness is usually denoted;
(o_o) , (0_0) , (o_O) - these emoticons mean varying degrees of surprise;
(V_v) or (v_V) - unpleasantly surprised;
*-* - amazement;
(@_@) — surprise has reached its maximum (“you can be stunned”);
^_^”, *^_^* or (-_-v) - embarrassment, awkwardness;
(?_?) , ^o^ - misunderstanding;
(-_-#) , (-_-¤) , (>__
8 (>_
(>>) , (>_>) or (<_>
-__- or =__= - indifference;
m (._.) m - apology;
($_$) - this emoticon reflects greed;
(;_;) , Q__Q - crying;
(T_T), (TT.TT) or (ToT) - sobbing;
(^_~) , (^_-) - these variations of emoticons mean a wink;
^)(^, (-)(-), (^)...(^) - kiss;
(^3^) or (* ^) 3 (*^^*) - love;
(-_-;) , (-_-;)~ - sick;
(- . -) Zzz, (-_-) Zzz or (u_u) - sleeping.

Well, now a few horizontal emoticons that reflect frequently encountered emotions, composed of more complex symbols and signs, as well as their designations:

٩(◕‿◕)۶ , (〃＾▽＾〃) or \(★ω★)/ - happiness;
o(❛ᴗ❛)o , (o˘◡˘o) , (っ˘ω˘ς) - smile;
(´♡‿♡`), (˘∀˘)/(μ‿μ) ❤ or (๑°꒵°๑)･*♡ - love;
(◡‿◡ *), (*ﾉ∀`*), (*μ_μ) - embarrassment.

Naturally, Japanese emoticons, which use not only service symbols and punctuation marks, but also complex letters of the katakana alphabet, provide more opportunities to express not only emotions through facial expressions, but also through gestures.

For example, an emoticon has become widespread on the Internet, shrugging shoulders and throwing up hands. What does it mean? Most likely an apology with a hint of awkwardness:

This emoticon appeared thanks to the famous rapper Kanye West, who unexpectedly interrupted the presenter's speech at the Video Music Awards in 2010, and then demonstrated such a gesture, admitting the incorrectness of his behavior (the emoticon that shrugs its shoulders and spreads its arms was called “Kanye shoulders” and became a real meme):

If you are interested in exploring the complete collection of kaomoji that reflect emotions, forms of movement, states, types of animals, etc., then visit here is this resource, where they can be easily copied and pasted into the desired location.

Graphic emoticons Emoji (emoji), their codes and meanings

So, above we examined symbolic emoticons, some of which, when inserted on social networks and other places, can acquire graphic outlines, that is, appear in the form of pictures. But this does not happen everywhere and not always. Why?

Yes, because they consist of simple text icons. To emoticons were guaranteed to acquire the appearance of images after insertion, and in any place where you place them, codes must be used, specially included in the official Unicode table so that any user can quickly express their emotional state.

Of course, any emoticon can be loaded in the form of pictures created in graphic editors, but given the huge number of them and the number of users on the Internet, such a solution does not seem ideal, since it will inevitably negatively affect the bandwidth of the global network. But the use of codes in this situation is just right.

As a result, popular engines used for forums and blogs (for example, WordPress) have in their functionality the ability to insert colored emoticons, which undoubtedly adds expressiveness to messages.

The same can be said for various chats and instant messengers designed for both PCs and mobile devices (Skype, Telegram, Viber, Whatsapp).

It is graphic pictograms that are called emoji (or emoji, which is more correct from the point of view of Japanese pronunciation). Term «画像文字» (in Latin transliteration “emoji”), which, like kaomoji, is a phrase consisting of two words translated into Russian meaning “picture” (“e”) and “letter”, “symbol” (moji).

I think the Japanese name for small pictures that appear in the text to display emotions, feelings and states is most fair, since it was in Japan that symbolic images were born that do not require mentally turning them over for correct perception.

As I noted above, any code emoji smiley in the vast majority of cases, it is necessarily interpreted into a picture in all possible places where you want to insert it, including, for example, social networks VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Moreover, in different areas, the smiley may be displayed differently when inserting the same Unicode code corresponding to a specific value:

Another important point. By default, the emoji smiley will be executed in black and white or displayed as a rectangle😀 (it all depends on the platform that is used where it is inserted). You can verify this if visit encoder and try to insert HTML codes corresponding to different emoticons into the field on the right:

Similar emojis will look exactly like this in the browser. In order for them to acquire color, you need to use a special script that is installed on large popular services. By the way, in one of the latest versions of WordPress (I don’t remember which one) emoji were enabled by default, but I had to disable them due to a serious increase in . which I try to constantly monitor.

So for small businesses with limited resources, emojis are not always a boon. After disabling, when you try to insert emoji into the text of an article or comment, the emoticons will be present in black and white or in the shape of a rectangle.

But in popular social networks, the use of the appropriate HTML code by any user initiates the appearance of a full-fledged emoticon. By the way, in the same Contact there is a whole collection of emoji, sorted into categories. Copy this or that emoji you can from the Unicode table, located where the icons are distributed among sections:

Select the required image from the “Native” column and copy it to using the context menu or Ctrl+C. Then open the page of some social network, forum, chat, even your email in a new tab and paste this code into the message you want to send using the same menu or Ctrl+V.

Now watch the video, which presents 10 emojis whose real meaning you may not even know.

Emoticons have become such a part of our lives that without them the alphabet looks incomplete, and messages seem dry and distant. But even such a frivolous and childishly simple task as arranging emojis has its own subtleties.

What do different emoticons mean?

With object emoticons, everything is simple: they mean what they represent. A ball is a ball, an alarm clock is an alarm clock, and there’s nothing to think about. But with face emoticons the task becomes more complicated. We are not always able to correctly guess emotions from the faces of living people, let alone the faces of koloboks. There are emoticons whose meaning is obvious:

Fun, laughter, joy, rejoicing.

Sadness, melancholy, melancholy, dissatisfaction.

Playful mood, teasing.

Surprise, amazement, shock, fear.

Anger, resentment, rage.

And several more similar ones - all possible options for families and romantic unions.

But among the emoticons there are also those whose meaning can be interpreted ambiguously, or even be completely confusing:

This emoticon depicts a person sobbing in three - well, in two - streams, however, in the version for Apple devices, due to raised eyebrows and a mouth that is not distorted from sobs, he is often perceived as laughing to the point of tears. Be careful with them: you want to indicate grief to them, but they will misunderstand you.

This emoticon is intended to represent silence. Instead, he just scares you to death.

If everything is more or less clear with the evil devil (“angry as hell”), then the cheerful devil is somewhat puzzling. Most likely, he is not only furious, but also looking forward to dancing on your opponent’s grave. But you, perhaps, just wanted to show originality and an unusual smiley.

Despite the fact that the three wise monkeys did not see, hear or speak anything precisely because of their wisdom, these muzzles cover their eyes, mouth and ears in shame, confusion and shock.

A set of cat emoticons for those who consider ordinary koloboks to be insufficiently expressive and want to add sweetness to their emotions.

Instead of “hello” and “bye,” you can wave your hand.

Raised hands, a gesture of joyful greeting or jubilation.

The applause is both sincere and sarcastic.

If in this picture you see hands folded in a prayer gesture, then for you the emoji may mean “thank you” or “I beg you.” Well, if you see a high-five happening here, it means you are a very cheerful person.

A raised index finger can emphasize the importance of a message or express a request to interrupt the interlocutor with a question, or it can simply indicate a previous message in the chat.

Fingers crossed for luck.

For some it’s “stop”, but for others it’s “high five!”

No, it's not a truffle. Not even a truffle at all.

Ogre and Japanese goblin. Looks like someone is missing the usual devils.

Liar. His nose grows like Pinocchio's every time he lies.

These are eyes wide with amazement, and the darting eyes of a scoundrel, and even a lustful look. If someone sends you such an emoticon in a comment to a photo, you can be sure that the photo is good.

And it's just an eye, and it's watching you.

New moon and full moon. It seems like nothing special, but these emoticons have their fans who value them for their creepy facial expressions.

A very common girl in purple. Her gestures mean OK (arms above head), “no” (arms crossed), “hello” or “I know the answer” (arm raised up). This character has another pose that confuses many - . According to the official version, it symbolizes a help desk employee. Apparently, she is showing with her hand how to get to the city library.

Do you also see two tense faces here, presumably in an unfriendly mood? But they didn’t guess: according to Apple’s hints, this is an embarrassed face and a stubborn face. Who would have thought!

By the way, you can see hints for emoticons in the message window on if you open an emoji and hover over the emoticon you are interested in. Like this:

Another way to find out the meaning of an emoticon is to turn to emojipedia.org for help. On it you will find not only detailed interpretations of emoticons, but you can also see how the same emoticon looks on different platforms. Many unexpected discoveries await you.

Where are emoticons appropriate?

1. In informal friendly correspondence

Funny yellow faces are appropriate in a personal chat, where you share not so much information as your mood. With the help of emoticons, you will laugh at a joke, sympathize, and make faces at each other. This is where emotions belong.

2. When emotions splash over the edge and there are not enough words

Sometimes, when something very important happens in our lives, we are so overwhelmed with feelings that we are about to burst. Then we write an emotional post on Facebook or post a dazzling photo on Instagram and decorate it with a generous scattering of emoticons. Some people, of course, won’t like this, but what now, stifling all the bright sensations in yourself? The main thing is not to overuse such public displays of violent emotions: this will alienate subscribers and call into question your adequacy.

3. By agreement, to highlight messages in work correspondence

This is a very simple and convenient way to make important messages that require an urgent response visible. For example, great for these purposes. But you need to agree in advance which cases are considered urgent in your company and what emoticon you will use for this.

It’s important not to overdo it: if you have one emoticon for messages about emergency situations, a second for urgent issues, a third for important news, then soon all your work correspondence will turn into a New Year’s garland that no one looks at.

When is it better to do without emoticons?

1. In business correspondence

Work is no place for emotions. Here you are required to be calm, collected and professional. Even if you want to emphasize your friendliness or express concern about a situation, use , not emoticons, for these purposes.

2. When communicating with foreigners

This is especially true for gesture emoticons. For example, the person you wanted to express approval of will put an end to your good relationship with a person from Greece or Thailand. Of course, with this gesture you sent him to hell.

Therefore, if you are not confident in your deep knowledge of the peculiarities of the national culture of your interlocutor, do not take risks.

3. Oddly enough, when you discuss feelings and emotions

Feelings are a serious matter. If you are not just chatting, but revealing your soul or sharing something important, words will convey your feelings and experiences much more accurately than emoticons. “You are dearer to me than anyone in the world” means much more than ten hearts in a row. In the end, you only have one heart, so give it away.

Remember that emojis are a seasoning, not the main ingredient. You only need a small amount to add punch to your message.

Emoji language

Judging by the fact that today almost no personal correspondence is complete without emoticons, we can safely say that emoji have become an independent section of the language. Sometimes they even pretend to replace language: you can write an entire message using only emoticons. In the popular American TV show Ellen DeGeneres there is even a special section in which guests are invited to read a phrase where some of the words are replaced with emoji:

And here the name of the film is encrypted, which we invite you to guess.

Emoji have become one of the pillars of modern Internet communication, and it is already difficult to imagine electronic correspondence without the use of emoticons. New images appear every few months, and the first set of emojis was even included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But it turns out that most of us use them incorrectly.

Lost in translation

A study conducted by e2save and published by The Daily Mail found that only one in five people can interpret emoji correctly. However, most people find it difficult to verbally describe emoticons and the emotions they convey.

According to the study, around 82% of Brits regularly use emojis, with 44% doing so to clarify the meaning of a message. Respondents were asked to explain the meaning of the 20 most “confusing” emoji. Only 19% of respondents managed to do this. And only 44% of respondents were able to correctly explain the meaning of emoticons.

There are five emojis that confuse people the most.

Most people (69%) believe that a face with smoke coming from its nostrils expresses anger or irritation. In fact, this emoticon symbolizes a sigh of relief after the frustration experienced.

A face with wide eyes, an open mouth and raised eyebrows is often used to show surprise (at least 66% of respondents do). However, according to the original idea, it depicts a silent person.

Another 62% believe that a frowning face with a teardrop signifies frustration. But that's not true. Its original meaning is to show "relief after disappointment."

And while 57% of people believe that clasped hands mean prayer or supplication, the emoji was created to express gratitude.

The image of a woman with her hands above her head is also confusing. Most people (55%) think she's surprised, but it actually means "okay."

Other emojis also cause identification difficulties - a cat's face, a horn, a devil's mask, and so on.

The emoticons in the top row mean (from left to right): yawn, surprised cat, devil. Middle row: high five, message delivery, sleepy, feeling unwell. In the bottom row: impulse to do something, dizziness, impudence, decorating baked goods.

“With so much interest in icons, it is surprising that many of us misunderstand their meaning. Apparently, we should be more careful about choosing emoji before sending them,” said e2save marketer Andy Cartledge.

New collection

The other day, the Unicode Consortium announced that in 2017, humanity will receive a new set of 51 emoji. Among them will be a vampire, a pretzel, a sandwich, an “I love you” gesture, a flying saucer, broccoli, a coconut and others. The full list can be found

Apparently, the creators of emoji are trying to bring them closer to diverse social and national groups of people. Thus, the new set includes a woman in a hijab, a man with a very long beard and a mother breastfeeding her child.

On the other hand, there are many mythical characters on the list - in addition to those mentioned, these are fairies, mermaids of both sexes, a genie and zombies.

And of course, there was food and animals. A giraffe, a zebra, a hedgehog, a tyrannosaurus, canned food and a cup with a straw are already waiting for their finest hour. As for the emoticon faces themselves, the new set may bring even more confusion to the ranks of users.

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What does this or that Emoji mean? Many people ask this question because it is not always clear what a smile means. Emoji with two hands together, for example. What does this emoticon mean? Is it two people giving each other a high five? Or is it someone praying? If you sometimes doubt what an Emoji means, then we have prepared some tips that will help you answer this question.

How to Find Out What an Emoji Means on Your Mac

There are several ways to find out the meaning of an emoji smiley on your Mac.

The first method is quite simple:

Step 1: In the Messages app on your Mac, tap an emoji to open the Emoji keyboard.

Step 2: Find the emoji whose meaning you want to know.

Step 3: Hover your cursor over an Emoji and after a couple of seconds, you will see a tooltip with a description of this smiley.

Second way:

Step 1: In any application, go to Menu Bar > Edit > Emoji Icons and Symbols (or Special Characters in some versions of OS X). This will bring up a window with all the symbols present on your computer.

Step 2: Select Emoji in the left sidebar.

Step 3: Select the Emoji whose meaning you want to know and click on it.

Step 4: On the right side, you will be presented with the meaning of this Emoji.

Find out what Emoji means using iPhone

If on a Mac you can easily find out what a smiley emoji means, then on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch it is more difficult. We're going to use the feature to say the name of the emoji out loud.

Note that for some reason, this feature is not available on iOS 9, but it still works on older versions of iOS. It is not known why Apple removed this feature, it may have been a mistake and they will be bringing it back in the future.

Step 1: On your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, go to menu Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech and turn it on Pronunciation.

Step 2: Create a new email or note and insert the Emoji whose meaning you want to know.

Step 3: Select an emoticon and select “Say” in the menu. Siri will say the name and symbol of the emoji.

Use the Emoji Dictionary app

There are many apps on the App Store that have emoji descriptions, but one of the simplest and free apps is Emoji Dictionary. Download the app and see the meaning of your favorite Emoji. Unfortunately, this app hasn't been updated since January 2015, so the Emoji list is a bit out of date. For example, it does not include the latest Emoji, .

Learn about Emoji characters on Emojipedia

Emojipedia is the Wikipedia of the emoji world. The site contains all the Emoji emoticons and detailed information about each of them. This is definitely the most detailed information about Emoji characters.

Do you know other ways to find out the meaning of a certain Emoji? If you know, then share them in the comments.