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.
smileys
-
pluralof smiley.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
The original Twitter thread, laden with exclamation points and smileys, aimed to provoke amazement and incredulity.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2021
Unicode, which oversees what is allowed to become an emoji, currently lists 1644 emojis, including smileys, people, sport, food, animals, flags and a myriad of other categories.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 17, 2018
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
