smiley

any of a group of symbols depicting a smile, or other facial expression, used in electronic mail

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

smiley

[′smīl·ē]

(computer science)

emoticon

smiley

emoticon

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

emoticon

(EMOTional ICON) A pictorial expression of feeling in a message rendered as text. Carnegie Mellon professor Scott Fahlman is credited with creating the first emoticon (the "smiley") using the text characters :-) in an online message in 1982.

Pronounced "e-mo-tih-con," the symbols are stored in the Unicode character set. Word processing, email and other character-based programs may automatically convert emoticon text into an icon. See emoji, emotag, Unicode and alphanumerish.

Emoticon   Meaning

  :-)     smiley, happy face

  :-(     frown

  ;-)     wink

  :-D     big smile

  :-O     mouth open in amazement

  :-Q     tongue hanging out in nausea

  :-{)    moustache

  :-{)}   moustache and beard

  8-)     wears glasses

  (-:     left handed or Australian

  :*)     red nosed, suggesting inebriation

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

The show dives into a yearslong investigation into the Smiley Face theory led by retired New York City police detective Kevin Gannon and his team.

'Smiley Face Killers' series shines light on suburban mystery

She wrote: "If anyone sees a lad walking around town with a 6ft smiley face, it belongs to me, he's just robbed it from LIQUORSTOREMCR, the face will be very distressed.

SMILES AWAY... ACID HOUSE FACE STOLEN FROM BAR TURNS UP AT LIAM GALLAGHER GIG

Rogers cited a recent survey suggesting that 70% of customers associate the smiley face with savings.

Marketing Icon Evokes Low Prices

Go and see something you might never thought of - as long as it doesn't clash with my show." | Mark Nelson: Smiley Face at the Gilded Ballroom, August 3 to 28, 8.45pm.

Online the pursuit of happiness

Tell students you will now introduce an invasive species, called smiley faces, into the ecosystem.

Stop that snake! The fight against invasive species in the U.S

Similar to the smiley face, the sad face is the standard emoticon for anyone who wants to express sadness or gloominess in their messages.

Emote with Emoticons: 8 Popularly used Emoticons and Emojis

EMOJIs: The new face of internet security David Webber of British company Intelligent Environments hopes the system will appeal to young people and told the BBC some digital banks have already shown an interest, no doubt eliciting a smiley face emoji from Mr Webber.

Emojis used for passwords; WHAT'S ON THE WEB

The social media giant has bowed to public pressure and removed the "fat" emoji from the site after a change.org petition received more than 16,000 signatures, meaning the smiley face with chubby cheeks and a double chin is no longer an option for the site's 890million daily users.

Why there's no place for feeling fat on Facebook

What began as a clever clogs use of punctuation (colon + dash + closing bracket = smiley face etc) has devloped into a whole new language for anyone who uses digital devices to communicate.

The hidden cost of the diddy little smiley face

It's the Smiley Face. That innocent yellow ball of Americana created right here.

What are you smiling at anyway?

If you're late to the show, he, or she, is the person that slaughtered Patrick Jane's family and left a smiley face daubed in red at the scene of that and all future crimes.

TUESDAY'S TV 17.12.13; CHOICE