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
1 American
[smahy-lee]
/ ˈsmaɪ li /
noun
-
smileys
plural
-
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.
-
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.
adjective
Smiley
2
American
[smahy-lee]
/ ˈsmaɪ li /
noun
smiley
British
/ ˈsmaɪlɪ /
adjective
-
given to smiling; cheerful
-
depicting a smile
a smiley badge
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of smiley
1985–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“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
He also tweeted “Happy!” with a smiley face emoji at 4:19 a.m.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
Do not rewatch the video unless you want to be reminded of the smiley horrors of Zoom life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
It had been placed there as a paperweight to keep the smiley face Angela had drawn from flying away in the considerable wind.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
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
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
In the shop’s front window was a single book: “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto” by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, surrounded by signs that read “Forced Out!,”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 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
“Where you s’pose the color goes?” asked Smiley.
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
Second place receives a big puffy foamy top hat in psychedelic colors and printed with all sorts of groovy peace signs and flowers and smileys.
From Washington Post ● May 10, 2018
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
