Emoji are small digital pictures used in text messages and online posts to express feelings, ideas, or objects. The word comes from Japanese: e means “picture” and moji means “character.” When you send a smiling face 😊, a pizza slice 🍕, or a thumbs up 👍, you're using emoji.

Emoji started in Japan in the late 1990s when a designer named Shigetaka Kurita created 176 simple pictures for early cell phones. He wanted to make electronic messages feel more human and expressive, the way a real conversation includes facial expressions and gestures. Today, there are thousands of emoji showing everything from animals and food to flags and activities.

People use emoji to add tone to their messages. The sentence “That's great” can mean different things depending on whether you add a genuine smile, a sarcastic smirk, or a crying-laughing face. Emoji can help prevent misunderstandings in texts, where you can't hear someone's voice or see their face.

The word emoji works as both singular and plural, though some people say emojis for the plural. You might write “I sent three emoji” or “I sent three emojis,” and both are acceptable. Don't confuse emoji with emoticons, which are older symbols made from keyboard characters, like :) or ;).