Emojis are digital pictograms widely used in electronic communication to express ideas and objects, including emotions, foods, animals, and flags. The word emoji comes from the Japanese words e (picture) and moji (written character). Shigetaka Kurita is often credited with inventing the emoji. In 1999, he created a set of simple, universal 12x12-pixel icons for the Japanese user base of the cell phone company NTT DOCOMO. The Unicode Consortium standardizes emoji codes, allowing users to view emojis across different brands and platforms. By 2022, they had standardized over 3,600 emojis.

How are emojis different from regular text or letters?

Emojis are distinct from regular text because they are pictographs, not written characters. The word emoji comes from the Japanese e meaning "picture" and moji meaning "written character". They bring nonverbal cues, such as body language and facial expressions, to digital communication and clarify the sender’s intentions. Emojis can express a range of objects and ideas, including human emotions, animals, geography, foods, and flags. They are standardized by the Unicode Consortium , which allows users to view emojis sent from one device to another, no matter the brand or platform.

Where are emojis commonly used?

Emojis are commonly used in social media, texting, e-mail, and other computer-mediated communications. They express a range of objects and ideas, including human emotions, animals, geography, foods, and flags. Emojis are popular because they are useful in an online world that values simplicity and clarity, especially on sites that set character limits, such as Twitter. Emojis can clarify the sender’s intention and eliminate some of the misunderstanding for which texting has become infamous. They can take the place of body language, facial expressions, and other nonverbal cues used in face-to-face communication.

How do emojis help people express feelings or ideas?

Emojis are digital pictograms that people use in electronic communication to express ideas and feelings. They add tone to otherwise stark text. Emojis can represent facial expressions, body language, and other nonverbal cues that are missing from online communication, which reduces misunderstanding. The Unicode Consortium standardizes emoji across platforms like Apple, Google, and Samsung. This standardization ensures that people recognize emojis regardless of what device was used to send them.

What are some examples of different types of emojis?

Emojis are digital pictograms used in electronic communication to express ideas and objects, including emotions, animals, foods, and flags. The Unicode Consortium standardizes emoji, allowing users to view them across different brands and platforms. Examples of emojis include: * "Face with Tears of Joy" (\ud83d\ude02) * "Waning Crescent Moon" (\ud83c\udf18) * "Triangular Flag on Post" (\ud83d\udea9) * "Pistol" (\ud83d\udd2b). This emoji was changed to a water gun by Apple in 2016. Emojis can be used to clarify the sender’s intentions and prevent misunderstandings in text messages and tweets. They have also evolved to reflect social trends, such as the inclusion of diverse skin tones.

How have emojis changed the way people communicate through digital messages?

Emojis have transformed digital communication by offering a nonverbal dimension previously lacking in online interactions. They act as digital pictograms that express a range of ideas and objects, including emotions, and can clarify intentions, substituting for body language and facial expressions. The rise in popularity of emojis is due to their capacity to offer clarity and simplicity, especially where character limits exist. Unicode standardization ensures that emojis remain recognizable across various brands and platforms, facilitating seamless communication. They can also be used to bridge language barriers.

emoji

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

3D rendering of a mind blown emoji with wide eyes and an open mouth, featuring the top of its head exploding upward in a cloud shape.

Quick Facts

Related Topics:: Internet; social media; What’s the Difference Between Emoji and Emoticons?; texting; e-mail

On the Web:: IOPscience - IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering - Emoji: Representations of Nonverbal Symbols in Communication Technology (Oct. 16, 2026)

See all related content

emoji

pictogram

Written by

Emily Kendall

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 16, 2026 •History

Top Questions

What is an emoji?
Emojis are digital pictograms widely used in electronic communication to express ideas and objects, including emotions, foods, animals, and flags. The word emoji comes from the Japanese words e (picture) and moji (written character).

Shigetaka Kurita is often credited with inventing the emoji. In 1999, he created a set of simple, universal 12x12-pixel icons for the Japanese user base of the cell phone company NTT DOCOMO.

The Unicode Consortium standardizes emoji codes, allowing users to view emojis across different brands and platforms. By 2022, they had standardized over 3,600 emojis.
2 Britannica Sources
1. emoji
2. What’s the Difference Between Emoji and Emoticons?
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How are emojis different from regular text or letters?
Emojis are distinct from regular text because they are pictographs, not written characters. The word emoji comes from the Japanese e meaning "picture" and moji meaning "written character". They bring nonverbal cues, such as body language and facial expressions, to digital communication and clarify the sender’s intentions.

Emojis can express a range of objects and ideas, including human emotions, animals, geography, foods, and flags. They are standardized by the Unicode Consortium, which allows users to view emojis sent from one device to another, no matter the brand or platform.
2 Britannica Sources
1. emoji
2. What’s the Difference Between Emoji and Emoticons?
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Where are emojis commonly used?
Emojis are commonly used in social media, texting, e-mail, and other computer-mediated communications. They express a range of objects and ideas, including human emotions, animals, geography, foods, and flags. Emojis are popular because they are useful in an online world that values simplicity and clarity, especially on sites that set character limits, such as Twitter. Emojis can clarify the sender’s intention and eliminate some of the misunderstanding for which texting has become infamous. They can take the place of body language, facial expressions, and other nonverbal cues used in face-to-face communication.
2 Britannica Sources
1. emoji
2. What’s the Difference Between Emoji and Emoticons?
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How do emojis help people express feelings or ideas?
Emojis are digital pictograms that people use in electronic communication to express ideas and feelings. They add tone to otherwise stark text. Emojis can represent facial expressions, body language, and other nonverbal cues that are missing from online communication, which reduces misunderstanding.

The Unicode Consortium standardizes emoji across platforms like Apple, Google, and Samsung. This standardization ensures that people recognize emojis regardless of what device was used to send them.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What are some examples of different types of emojis?
Emojis are digital pictograms used in electronic communication to express ideas and objects, including emotions, animals, foods, and flags. The Unicode Consortium standardizes emoji, allowing users to view them across different brands and platforms.

Examples of emojis include:
* "Face with Tears of Joy" (\ud83d\ude02)
* "Waning Crescent Moon" (\ud83c\udf18)
* "Triangular Flag on Post" (\ud83d\udea9)
* "Pistol" (\ud83d\udd2b). This emoji was changed to a water gun by Apple in 2016.

Emojis can be used to clarify the sender’s intentions and prevent misunderstandings in text messages and tweets. They have also evolved to reflect social trends, such as the inclusion of diverse skin tones.
2 Britannica Sources
1. emoji
2. What’s the Difference Between Emoji and Emoticons?
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How have emojis changed the way people communicate through digital messages?
Emojis have transformed digital communication by offering a nonverbal dimension previously lacking in online interactions. They act as digital pictograms that express a range of ideas and objects, including emotions, and can clarify intentions, substituting for body language and facial expressions.

The rise in popularity of emojis is due to their capacity to offer clarity and simplicity, especially where character limits exist. Unicode standardization ensures that emojis remain recognizable across various brands and platforms, facilitating seamless communication. They can also be used to bridge language barriers.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

emoji, digital pictograms used widely throughout social media, texting, e-mail, and other computer-mediated communications. Emojis are used to express a range of objects and ideas, including human emotions, animals, geography, foods, and flags. The term emoji was born from two Japanese words: e, meaning “picture,” and moji, meaning “written character.”

The codes associated with emojis are standardized by the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organization responsible for reviewing and releasing proposed emojis and other characters. Brands such as Apple, Google, and Samsung use emojis standardized by the consortium, which allows users to view emojis sent from one device to another no matter the brand or platform. Though the illustrative style of a given emoji might change between devices of different manufacturers or between platforms, the emoji remains recognizable. The consortium also assigns names to emojis, such as “Face with One Eyebrow Raised” ( 🤨) and “Waning Crescent Moon” ( 🌘). By 2022 the Unicode Consortium had standardized more than 3,600 emojis.

“Thinking Face” emoji“Thinking Face” emoji, used to express pondering.

Emojis’ popularity arises in part from their usefulness in an online world that values simplicity and clarity of expression, especially on sites that set character limits, such as Twitter. The brevity of a text message or tweet often leaves room for ambiguity, but the emoji functions on a nonverbal level that computer-mediated communication previously lacked. Emojis can take the place of body language, facial expressions, and other nonverbal cues used in face-to-face communication. In this way, emojis can clarify the sender’s intention and eliminate some of the misunderstanding for which texting has become infamous.

Chicken and an egg with a white background (poultry, chick, birds).

Britannica Quiz

Which Came First? Vocabulary Quiz

Though some linguists and other experts believed emojis signaled a regression in communication, other intellectual communities welcomed emojis into their vocabulary. In 2015 the Oxford Dictionaries named the popular “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji (😂) its word of the year. Many of the meanings attached to emojis develop colloquially on social media and often stem from metaphorical interpretations of the symbol. For example, the “Triangular Flag on Post” emoji (🚩) depicts a triangular red banner that is generally used to refer to warning signs, or red flags, within a relationship. Sometimes, multiple emojis are set beside one another sequentially to communicate more-complex ideas, or even phrases, than is possible with a single emoji.

Emojis have undergone changes because of social trends and concerns. Throughout the 2010s most emojis depicting faces or people had skin tones that were either white or a cartoonish yellow, prompting a push from the public and the industry for emojis to reflect greater diversity. In 2014 the Unicode Consortium approved a range of five new skin tones. In another instance, a public campaign against the “Pistol” emoji pushed Apple in 2016 to change the image from a realistic black revolver to a bright green water gun (🔫). Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and Twitter followed suit in 2018.

The emoji was predated by the emoticon, a more-primitive unit of digital expression in which keyboard symbols, such as a colon and a parenthesis, are set beside one another to suggest a facial expression. The first credited use of an emoticon occurred in 1982 when Scott Fahlman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, posted on a university forum his idea for a “joke-marker” :-), a symbol meant to indicate that a statement should not be taken too seriously. (He also proposed :-( for statements that were to be taken seriously, but that emoticon later came to be used for sadness or disapproval.) Fahlman’s post took off, and the :-) symbol swept across other university forums before being adopted by the general public. Soon after, in Japan another style of emoticon known as kaomoji, meaning “face marks,” developed. Whereas Western-style emoticons were to be read sideways, kaomoji were presented right side up and were often more complex in what they represented, such as a person wearing headphones or kneeling in apology.

In 1999 Japanese software developer Shigetaka Kurita created a series of 176 colourful pictorial icons for the cell phone company NTT DOCOMO. These emojis depicted concepts that were simple yet universal, such as weather, moods, foods, and animals. Kurita is often credited for the invention of the emoji, though it is now thought that Japanese conglomerate SoftBank actually released the first set of emojis in 1997 for its phone carrier. The set was smaller, with 90 icons, depicted in black and white. The designer of this set is unknown.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

Emily Kendall

emoji

Thank you for signing up!