The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph: 😂.
This is the first time Oxford chose a pictograph
as the Word of the Year.
The ‘Face with Tears of Joy’
is the name of the emoji.
In 2015, this emoji was used
more than other emoji
in the U.K and in the U.S.
The word emoji comes from Japanese
e (絵, “picture”) + moji (文字, “character”).
The father of the emoji
was Shigetaka Kurita from Japan.
Kurita gave the world a gift.
He designed the first emoji for cellphones.
In 1999, he made 180 symbols in one month.
How well do you know your emoji names?
Take the quiz here.
Read our Words of the Year stories.
Read about the Word of the Year in 2014 – vape.
Read about the Word of the Year in 2013 – selfie.