emoticon vs. emoji

emoticon vs. emoji: What's the difference?

An emoticon is a sequence of keyboard characters used to illustrate a facial expression (or to render some kind of picture or symbol), such as : ) for a smile, : ( for a frown, XD for a laughing face, or O_O for surprise. An emoji is a small image used alongside or in place of text. Many depict facial expressions (such as 🙂 and 🙁), but there are many, many other kinds (such as 👍, 💙, and 🐈). Despite their similarity in form and meaning, the words are not etymologically related: emoticon comes from a combination of the words emotion and icon, while emoji comes from a Japanese term meaning “pictograph,” from e, “picture, drawing,” and moji, “(written) character, letter.”