emoji

An emoji ( əm-OH-jee; plural emoji or emojis; Japanese: 絵文字, pronounced [emoꜜ(d)ʑi]) is a pictogram, logogram, or ideogram embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversation as well as to replace words as part of a logographic system. The first emoji sets were created by Japanese portable electronic device companies in the late 1980s and the 1990s. The word emoji comes from Japanese e (絵; 'picture') + moji (文字; 'character') and originally meant 'pictograph'; the resemblance to the English words emotion and emoticon is purely coincidental.

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