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• smiley
  smiley

  noun

  a digital icon, a sequence of keyboard symbols, or a handwritten or printed equivalent, that serves to represent a facial expression, as :‐) for a smiling face or ;‐) for a winking face.
• Smiley
  Smiley

  noun

  Jane, born 1949, U.S. novelist.

smiley

¹ American  

[smahy-lee] / ˈsmaɪ li /

noun

• smileys
  plural

1. a digital icon, a sequence of keyboard symbols, or a handwritten or printed equivalent, that serves to represent a facial expression, as :‐) for a smiling face or ;‐) for a winking face.

2. Usually smile face a drawing of a face consisting of a usually yellow circle with an upturned curve for a smile and two dots for eyes.

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adjective

1. cheerful; smiling.

Smiley ² American  

[smahy-lee] / ˈsmaɪ li /

noun

1. Jane, born 1949, U.S. novelist.

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smiley British  

/ ˈsmaɪlɪ /

adjective

1. given to smiling; cheerful

2. depicting a smile

   a smiley badge

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noun

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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• smileys
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of smiley

1985–90

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smiley Smiley smileys

“The fake niceness in mom chats, the smiley faces and exclamations, is reputation management,” says Santorelli.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

“It’s A No For Me,” he tersely posted on social media, accompanied by a smiley face emoji wearing shades.

From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026

Images on social media showed a person scaling the fence in a costume that included a smiley face head with sunglasses, prompting the monkeys to scatter.

From Barron's ● May 18, 2026

The black-and-white smiley motif of the Vertigo, an events space, sat right next to her face, just happy to be there, it seemed, above a painted sign that says “Ready to Party?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026

"A smiley face, just a little something," Ma suggested, followed by hugs, kisses, and of course, a prayer.

From "Patina" by Jason Reynolds

Minda Smiley, a senior analyst covering social media at Emarketer, told me that while the restrictions are significant, she doesn’t expect advertisers to be spooked just yet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Smiley said he spoke to Mayor Karen Bass multiple times in the wake of the town hall, and on Monday, city crews showed up to clean up fencing along the corridor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

That's the case of Adam Smiley Poswolsky, who is now a 42-year-old public speaker and author who talks and writes about how to improve workplace cultures.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

"For years, social media companies have claimed they're hard at work making their platforms safer for kids and teenagers," said Minda Smiley, an analyst at eMarketer.

From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026

We got even more miserable when Lee Roy noticed that Smiley had left our box of shotgun shells out under a tree.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

The original Twitter thread, laden with exclamation points and smileys, aimed to provoke amazement and incredulity.

From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2021

Yellow smileys painted on the tarmac reminded everyone to keep atwo metres apart.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 24, 2020

Now, though, that record may come down to anodyne emails with smileys at the end.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 24, 2016

These monochromatic buttons share little more than a basic concept with the slickly designed, subtly drop-shaded smileys and figurines we know today.

From Slate ● Dec. 7, 2015

We call them smileys because when you’re done eating all the meat off it, the goat looks like it’s smiling at you from the plate.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah

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