in email is an emoticon, or little faces that can be read sideways, which are used to indicate the sender’s emotional attitude to what is being typed :-)
An emoticon, often a small GIF image file which may be animated. Smileys are used to convey emotions and mood in emails, IM and on online forums. Americanadians please note smiley is the correct spelling of the word ;)
Emoticon; endless variations of :) to clue readers in on actual intent or note of sarcasm in messages. :) ;) :o :) :( :P :D
A combination of symbols designed to indicate the true intent or emotional state of the auther. The classic smiley is the sideways happy face :-). Smileys are fine in moderation, but overusing them not only indicates that your writing isn't as clear as it could be, but it also brands you as a newbie. See sol: chat-o-rama: smileys
face formed from keyboard characters, used to indicate emotions in e-mail and netnews. The original is: :-) signifying humor or happiness.
A smiley is 3 or 4 typed characters which resemble a face turned sideways displaying a mood, e.g., :-) Also called emotives.
Character combinations such as :-) to denote whether a message is being made in jest with various modifications thereof ;-) to wink, etc. Also called emoticons, since not all are smiling %-( .
Little text pictures used to add mood to your informal text. The standard smiley is :) To understand this, rotate your head 90 degrees to the left to see a smiling face. Get it :^) ? People also used to use g and bg to signal grin and big grin. This is less common these days. On the other hand, as HTML markup becomes better understood, people are using that style such assmug I told you so /smug(In HTML tags appear in , and a / often signals the end of a markup. You can one of a number of unofficial smiley dictionaries at http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_286.html. This isn't definitive, but will give you a flavour.
an emoticon of a smiling face
a graphic representation of a smiling human face, mostly coloured yellow
a group of keyboard characters that are put together to create a picture
a group of keyboard characters that conveys a feeling or expression
a little face that is typed as a
a one-row combination of characters which depicts an object, an action or a feature
The emoticon used to denote a smile, a grin, or a joke. Two common forms of this emoticon are :) and :-).
A combination of keyboard characters that portray emotions like :-) for a smile or :-( for a frown. Also called an emoticon.
Icons used to express feelings in an email message or in discussion. For example ;-) can be used to represent a wink. Also referred to as 'emoticons'.
or :) A group of symbols used to indicate a smile or laughter in an email or newsgroup message (look at it sideways). There are all sorts of variants including :-( for sadness, ;-) for a smile with a wink, and :-o for astonishment. Collectively they are often called emoticons.
A set of characters that looks like a face if you turn it sideways.Used in E-mail messages which only allow text. For example Frown :-( Smile :-) Wink ;-)
a colloquial term for a small symbol, made out of ordinary characters but often representing a smiling face, inserted into an e-mail or news article to indicate that a message or comment is humorous, ironic, or not meant to be taken seriously - it is difficult to indicate these qualities through text alone, and people are easily offended. These symbols take many forms, such as :-), ;^) or for more serious comments :-(.
A symbol made from ASCII characters such as :) or ;) that resembles a smiley face turned sideways.
Smiling faces used in mail and news to indicated humor and irony. The most common smiley is :).
Sets of characters meant to represent a face. The original is :-)
Smileys are used to smile in text-only e-mail messages. They are usually composed of a semi-colon, a dash, and a right-hand bracket, like this: ;-)
The use punctuation marks to show feelings and emotions. For example, a smiley face is :), and a sad face would be
A series of keyboard characters used to depict emotion or draw a picture. The most common one is :-). See Emoticon.
A sequence of typed characters that graphically produces a sideways image of a face expression, such as:-), :o, or :'-(. A smiley is used, for example, in a chat or e-mail message, to set the tone for the preceding sentence. In some phone models the user can select the smiley from a ready-made collection.
A type of emoticon depicting a smile.
A way to describe emotion online. Look at this with your head tilted to the left :-). There are scores of these smileys, from grumpy to quizzical.
The use of punctuation marks and other symbols or characters to portray moods when typing, especially in e-mail messages and IRC. Here's an example of a simple smiley :) . If you don't see it, tilt your head to the left and look at it. The colon makes the eyes and the parenthesis makes the smiley mouth. The smile means happiness (like if someone says something funny) or it often denotes sarcasm. Other combinations of characters can express many other emotions. You may also hear them referred to as "emoticons". (8/97)
The "smiley" or ":-)" is used to denote humour in some typed text. To avoid potential misunderstandings, the smiley system evolved to indicate to other readers that the author intents the preceding text to be humourous. There are many variations, eg sad :-(.
When you're face-to-face, you can smile, frown, or make a multitude of facial expressions to enhance your words. You can also sound happy, sad, angry, or just plain bored. In e-mail your words have to carry your thoughts by themselves, so folks invented smileys to punctuate their phrases. They are also call "emoticons" (short for "emotion" and "icon"). There are two types of basic smileys: those with words and those with pictures.
Clever use of ASCII symbols to convey emphasis or emotion in an e-mail message. Also known as an "emoticon", the most common smiley which usually indicates that the writer is happy or joking is: :-)
A set of keystrokes that can be included in e-mail to express emotion in a kind of graphical shorthand.
Text used to indicate emotion, humor, or irony in electronic messages – best understood if viewed sideways. Also called an emoticon. The most common smileys are: :-) and
(or Emoticon) Smilies are used in text communications to represent emotions or facial expressions, especially to indicate humour which might otherwise be misinterpreted. They are usually formed from punctuation. If you are unfamiliar with smilies, tilt your head to the left and they look like eyes, nose and mouth. Some common examples are::-) Smiling or happy face;-) A wink. Often used to indicate that the previous remark was not intended to be taken seriously and that the writer was being witty or sarcastic.:-( Sad or unhappy face:-/ Unsure or skeptical of last remark Laughing / big smile Smilies are often abbreviated by omitting the "nose", eg: :)
A symbol in e-mail and newsgroup messages used to convey emotion, or simply amusement. Create smileys by typing various keyboard characters. For example, :-) means happiness. See also, Emoticon.
a group of characters used in an e-mail message that look like a human face turned sideways
symbols used in text to indicate emotions -- also called "emoticons"
Characters used in text-only communications to convey emotions. Example: check our detailed list of smiley Here
a typographical cartoon or symbol generally used to indicate mood or appearance. Used to express emotions without words. For example, this winking face ;-) indicates "I'm joking", this sad face :-( expresses sadness or "I'm sulking". If this makes no sense, turn your head sideways and look again. Also known as an emoticon.
The happy face, a yellow button with a smile and two dots representing eyes and a half circle representing a mouth, was invented by Harvey Ball in 1963 for a Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, based insurance firm State Mutual Life Assurance. Ball never attempted to use, promote or trademark the image; it fell into the public domain in the United States before that could be accomplished.http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_031.html Who invented the smiley face? (from The Straight Dope).
