Standard Lemma guide

emoji

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ɪˈməʊ.dʒi/
  • General-American: /ɪˈmoʊ.d͡ʒi/
  • General-American: /iˈmoʊ.d͡ʒi/
  • Canada: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -əʊdʒi

1

noun

Meaning 1

A digital graphic icon with a unique code point used to represent a concept, object, person, animal or place, originally used in Japanese text messaging but since adopted internationally in other contexts such as social media. Or, by extension, any non-standard emoji-like image inserted inline in text, i.e. an image emoticon.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Middle Chinese 繪 (hwajH)bor. Japanese 絵 (e) Middle Chinese 文字 (mjun dziH)bor. Japanese 文字 (monji) Japanese 文字 (moji) Japanese 絵文字 (emoji)bor. English emoji Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”). False cognate of English emotion and emoticon.

Across languages

Translations

56 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: إِيمُوجِي (ʔīmūjī) — digital graphic icon
  • Armenian: էմոջի (ēmoǰi) — digital graphic icon
  • Belarusian: эмо́дзі (emódzi) — digital graphic icon
  • Bengali: ইমোজি (imōji) — digital graphic icon
  • Bulgarian: емо́джи (emódži) — digital graphic icon
  • Burmese: အီမိုဂျီ (imuigyi) — digital graphic icon
  • Cherokee: ᎡᎼᏥ (emotsi) — digital graphic icon
  • Chinese Cantonese: 繪文字 /绘文字 (kui2 man4 zi6) — digital graphic icon
  • Chinese Mandarin: 繪文字 /绘文字 (huìwénzì) — digital graphic icon
  • Czech: emodži — digital graphic icon
  • Czech: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Dutch: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Esperanto: emoĝio — digital graphic icon
  • Finnish: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • French: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • French: émoji — digital graphic icon
  • German: Emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Greek: εμότζι (emótzi) — digital graphic icon
  • Hebrew: אֶמוֹגִ׳י (emóji) — digital graphic icon
  • Hebrew: פַּרְצוּפוֹן (partsufón) — digital graphic icon
  • Hindi: इमोजी (imojī) — digital graphic icon
  • Hungarian: emodzsi — digital graphic icon
  • Icelandic: tjákn — digital graphic icon
  • Icelandic: tjámerki — digital graphic icon
  • Ido: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Indonesian: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Italian: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Japanese: 絵文字 (emoji) — digital graphic icon
  • Kazakh: сынтаңба (syntañba) — digital graphic icon
  • Korean: 에모지 (emoji) — digital graphic icon
  • Korean: 이모지 (imoji) — digital graphic icon
  • Lao: ອີໂມຈິ (ʼī mō chi) — digital graphic icon
  • Macedonian: емоџи (emodži) — digital graphic icon
  • Māori: emohi — digital graphic icon
  • Marathi: इमोजी (imojī) — digital graphic icon
  • Pashto: اېموجي (emoji) — digital graphic icon
  • Persian: اموجی (emoji) — digital graphic icon
  • Persian: ایموجی (imoji) — digital graphic icon
  • Persian: شکلک (šeklak) — digital graphic icon
  • Polish: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Portuguese: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Portuguese: emóji — digital graphic icon
  • Romanian: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Russian: эмо́дзи (emódzi) — digital graphic icon
  • Serbo-Croatian: емоџи — digital graphic icon
  • Spanish: emoyi — digital graphic icon
  • Spanish: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Swedish: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Thai: เอโมจิ — digital graphic icon
  • Tigrinya: ኢሞጂ (ʾimoǧi) — digital graphic icon
  • Tigrinya: ስሜት ገላጭ ምስል (səmet gälač̣ məsl) — digital graphic icon
  • Turkish: emoji — digital graphic icon
  • Turkish: sındamga — digital graphic icon
  • Ukrainian: емо́дзі (emódzi) — digital graphic icon
  • Urdu: ایموجی (imojī) — digital graphic icon
  • Yakut: эмодьи (emoji) — digital graphic icon