A guide to emoticons: how to understand them and not get into an awkward position. Emoji dictionary, or how to find out the meaning of emoji on Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

release of a new version of the standard, in which over 250 new emoji symbols will appear. They will probably be included in future versions of Android and iOS. The language of ideograms and emoticons will greatly expand, but not everyone has fully understood the old icons. We decided to recall the 15 most mysterious images and find out what they really mean.

Proposal Identifier:
e-4B5

Possible interpretations: VKontakte office, Burger King.

In fact: One of 17 symbols representing buildings; Anything with the letters BK means a bank. However, the acronym BK can also be interpreted as the word bakkureru, which means to shirk one's responsibilities or "feign ignorance".


Proposal Identifier:
e-044

Possible interpretations:“one-piece swimsuit”, “book”, “location designation”.

In fact This symbol is the Japanese version of the teapot that novice drivers stick to their windshield. It turns out that according to Japanese rules, a person who has only recently received a license is required to stick this sticker on the front and back, so that other road users are extremely careful. The driver can remove such a sticker only after gaining one year of driving experience. The badge appeared in 1972, and by now has gone beyond the culture of car enthusiasts. In a broad sense, it can be interpreted as “newcomers are welcome.”


Proposal Identifier:
e-B28

Possible interpretations:“no guys”, “no girls”, “no gays”, “something related to the last name nguyen”.

In fact: Many of the emoji depict English words and abbreviations, including Up, Cool, SOS, ID. But the letter combination NG in the blue square is probably the most mysterious. It turns out that in Asia the combination NG is often used to mean No Good - that is, “nothing good” or “not good.” Hence, this emoji symbol is used when something is not quite to your liking.


Proposal Identifier:
e-521

Possible interpretations:“bamboo with a flag”, “mop and star”, “symbol of the inflexibility of the Chinese communist system.”

In fact: The emoji refers to the traditional Japanese holiday Tanabata, also often called the "star festival" or "star festival" (hoshi matsuri). According to legend, Princess Orihime (symbolized by the star Vega) and the bootes Hikoboshi (star Altair in the constellation Aquila) met and fell in love. But Orihime's father separated the lovers on opposite sides of the river (Milky Way) and forbade them to meet more than once a year. Every year on the seventh night of the seventh month they are allowed to meet. This day usually falls on July 7th. Today, on this day, it is customary to hang tanzaku on bamboo branches - small pieces of thin colored paper with wishes written on them (the emoji depicts exactly this object).


Proposal Identifier:
e-968

Possible interpretations:“rice sweets”, “kebabs”, “caramelized fruits”.

In fact: Dango is an ancient Japanese rice sweet whose history can be traced back to several thousand years BC. Of course, they carry more meaning than a regular dessert. In Japan there is a proverb, “Hana yori dango,” which literally means “Dango is better than flowers.” It can be interpreted as “content is more important than form” or “first - what is necessary for life, and only then - something for the soul.”


Proposal Identifier:
e-1AD

Possible interpretations:“Japanese theater”, “samurai mask”, “Rita Popova is angry”.

In fact: This emoji symbol depicts the mask of Tengu - a creature from Japanese mythology, which appears in the guise of a huge man with a red face and a long nose. Since a long nose is associated with complacency in Japanese culture, the expression "become like Tengu" means to demonstrate arrogance, arrogance and self-confidence.


Proposal Identifier:
e-811

Possible interpretations:“a postcard with a view of the mountains”, “a number from the wardrobe”.

In fact: A playing card from a deck of the Japanese game Hanafuda or "flower cards". The Hanafuda deck has 12 suits, one for each month of the year with 4 cards in each suit. The card with a full moon against a red sky, depicted in an emoji, represents August and is special (something like the Joker). It is interesting that Nintendo, founded in 1889, first produced traditional Japanese hanafuda playing cards and continues to do so to this day.


Proposal Identifier:
e-4B8

Possible interpretations:“maternity hospital”, “hospital for sexual minorities”, “lover’s house”.

In fact: The house with the heart and the letter "H" is nothing more than a hotel for an hour - a place where couples meet to have sex. Since most young people in Japan live with their parents until they start their own families, these establishments are very popular in the country.


Proposal Identifier:
e-353

Possible interpretations:“push-ups”, “think and shut up”, “massage”.

In fact this is a man bowing. The so-called dogeza bow is an important element of Japanese manners. In this case, the person kneels and falls on his face, almost touching his head to the floor. Dogeza is used to show respect to the most honored guests, as well as in the form of a deepest apology or request. Emoji may seem not entirely clear, because the person is depicted not in profile, but in front, as he is facing directly to the interlocutor.


Proposal Identifier:
e-973

Possible interpretations:“teleportation stone”, “marshmallow”, “cookie”, “casino chip”.

In fact This is a piece of kamboko, a traditional Japanese dish made from surimi (what crab sticks are made from). The appetizer is steamed until hardened and served sliced ​​and chilled with various sauces or as part of other dishes, such as udon. The emoji depicts a special type of kamboko - naruto, which is named after the constantly operating whirlpool system near the city of Naruto. In the strait near the city, tidal currents sweep through several times a day, creating whirlpools up to 20 meters in diameter. Naruto's whirlpools became a symbol that was depicted in medieval Japanese prints.


Possible interpretations:“horror”, “strong hidden anger”, “deadly suffocation”.

In fact This is an anthropomorphic image of a new moon. The Moon with a human face, which appears in emoji in its first phase, being closest to the Sun. According to the Japanese, during this period of time it is difficult to discern the Moon, since the satellite is located between the Earth and the Sun, and only its dark side is visible from the Earth. In other words, it symbolizes mystery and mystery. Thanks to its strange and slightly scary appearance, the emoji has become very popular. Even the popular

For example, two palms clasped together can be interpreted in different ways - perhaps they symbolize prayer, but it is also possible that these are two people greeting each other with the words “High Five”. How to understand the meaning of certain emojis? We bring to your attention a few tips that will help you understand the meaning of emoticons on iPhone, iPad and macOS.

Many users mistake this picture for a crying face. In fact, the drop is not a tear, but sweat, meaning relief after the excitement experienced.

Don't be fooled, this is not a nut at all, but a roasted sweet potato.

What appears at first glance to be a pyramid of ping-pong balls is actually a "harvest festival card" symbolizing a Japanese traditional ceremony that occurs during the Tsukimi festival.

If you think it's an acorn, you're wrong. It's actually a chestnut.

This picture should not be used as a greeting card as it is nothing more than a bookmark.

This gesture means “OK” and indicates that everything is fine with you.

Raised palms do not mean an appeal to higher powers, but symbolize joy.

This “smiley” means severe irritation and a nervous state. Many users mistakenly use it to express contempt.

What looks like a black cube actually symbolizes the Muslim shrine of the Kaaba located in Mecca.

No, this girl does not have deer antlers growing on her head. They just give her a facial massage.

Often users resort to this picture when they want to express denial, but in fact it symbolizes the person at the information board.

This is not a dance move at all, as it may seem, but open arms.

This boy didn't hide or think. Believe it or not, he bows.

A “smiley” without a mouth symbolizes silence. It is often used to express confusion, fear, and sometimes it is used as a "Kolobok".

You might think it's fire, but it's actually a name badge.

This sign is not a fancy image of a house at all, but a symbol of anger.

The picture below appeared with the release of iOS 10.2. Some people might see a glass of whiskey here, but in reality it's just a glass.

Sometimes words alone are not enough to express feelings. In such cases, when communicating on social networks, we turn to emoji. Winking “emoticons” and other symbols appeared back in 1999, but they only recently won great love among users. Despite the fact that almost everyone uses them, the meanings of some pictures are not entirely clear.

In contact with

For example, two palms clasped together can be interpreted in different ways - perhaps they symbolize prayer, but it is also possible that these are two people greeting each other with the words “High Five”. How to understand the meaning of certain emojis? We bring to your attention a few tips that will help you understand the meaning of emoticons on iPhone, iPad and macOS.

Examples of the meaning of emoticons Emoji

Many users mistake this picture for a crying face. In fact, the drop is not a tear, but sweat, meaning relief after the excitement experienced.


Don't be fooled, this is not a nut at all, but a roasted sweet potato.

What appears at first glance to be a pyramid of ping-pong balls is actually a “harvest festival card,” symbolizing a Japanese traditional ceremony that occurs during the Tsukimi festival.

If you think it's an acorn, you're wrong. It's actually a chestnut.

This picture should not be used as a greeting card as it is nothing more than a bookmark.

This gesture means “OK” and indicates that everything is fine with you.

Raised palms do not mean an appeal to higher powers, but symbolize joy.

This “smiley” means severe irritation and a nervous state. Many users mistakenly use it to express contempt.

What looks like a black cube actually symbolizes the Muslim shrine of the Kaaba located in Mecca.

No, this girl does not have deer antlers growing on her head. They just give her a facial massage.

Often users resort to this picture when they want to express denial of something, but in fact it symbolizes the person at the information board.

This is not a dance move at all, as it may seem, but open arms.

This boy didn't hide or think. Believe it or not, he bows.

A smiley face without a mouth symbolizes silence. However, it is often used to express confusion, even fear, and is sometimes used as a "Kolobok" character.

You might think it's fire, but it's actually a name badge.

This sign is not a fancy image of a house at all, but a symbol of anger.

The picture below appeared with the release of iOS 10.2. Some people might see a glass of whiskey here, but in reality it's just a glass.

This symbol does not mean ordinary laughter, but hysterical laughter, when the laugher literally rolls around on the floor.

This image can be interpreted as both a jellyfish and an umbrella, but Apple believes that this is what the oriental furin bell looks like, ringing in the wind.

Do not confuse this symbol with the panic button. It's actually a trackball.

You shouldn’t look for hidden meaning in this sign, because it’s just a hole.

It may seem that this guy is none other than the legendary Ziggy Stardust performed by British artist David Bowie. Despite the similar makeup, this is just a symbol of any singer.

How to independently find out the meaning (determine the meaning) of emoji on iPhone

Finding out the meaning of an emoji on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is very easy. Using the function Pronunciation you can “force” iOS to explain out loud what this or that picture means.

1 . On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to " Settings", select "About main» -> « Universal access» -> Speech -> Pronunciation).

2 . Write a message and insert an emoji.

3 . Place the cursor next to the Emoji emoticon whose meaning you want to find out and click on the screen until a menu with actions appears.

Click " Choose", after which the emoji will be highlighted, and then select the option " Talk” and the voice assistant will read aloud the meaning of the emoticon in Russian.

An emoticon is a set of symbols, or icon, that is a visual representation of a facial expression or body position to convey a mood, attitude, or emotion, originally used in email and text messages. The most famous is the smiling face emoji, i.e. smile - :-) .

There is no clear and reliable evidence about who invented the emoticon. Of course, you can point to ancient excavations, finds of various inscriptions on rocks, etc., but these will only be guesses from each of us.

Of course, to say for sure that the emoticon is a modern invention is a little wrong. The use of emoticons can be traced back to the 19th century. Examples of their use can be found in a copy of the American magazine "Puck" from 1881, see example:

Yes, there are a lot of such examples in history, but it is generally accepted that a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, Scott Fahlman, was responsible for the first digital type of emoticon. He suggested distinguishing serious messages from frivolous ones by using emoticons :-) and :-(. This was all the way back on September 19, 1982. This is especially useful when the sentiment of your message can be misinterpreted.

YES, BUT YOU NEVER ARRIVE ON TIME, ANYWAY.

YES, BUT YOU NEVER ARRIVE ON TIME, ANYWAY. ;-)

However, emoticons did not become so popular, but revealed their potential 14 years later, thanks to a Frenchman who lived in London - Nicolas Laufrani. The idea arose even earlier, from Nicolas’s father, Franklin Laufrani. It was he who, as a journalist for the French newspaper France Soir, published an article on January 1, 1972, under the heading “Take time to smile!”, where he used emoticons to highlight his article. Later he patented it as a trademark and created the production of some products using the smiley. Then a company was created under the brand name Smiley, where father Franklin Loufrani became president, and son Nicolas Loufrani became general director.

It was Nicolas who noticed the popularity of ASCII emoticons, which were widely used on mobile phones, and began developing directly animated emoticons that would correspond to ASCII emoticons consisting of simple characters, i.e. what we now use and are accustomed to calling - smiley. He created a catalog of emoticons, which he divided into categories “Emotions”, “Holidays”, “Food”, etc. And in 1997, this catalog was registered with the US Copyright Office.

Around the same time in Japan, Shigetaka Kurita began designing emoticons for I-mode. But unfortunately, the widespread use of this project never happened. Maybe because in 2001, Laufrani's creations were licensed by Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and other mobile phone manufacturers, who later began offering them to their users. After that, the world was simply overwhelmed with various interpretations of emoticons and emoticons.

The following variations with smaliks and emoticons became the appearance stickers in 2011. They were created by the leading Internet company from Korea - Naver. The company has developed a messaging platform called - Line. A similar messaging application like WhatsApp. LINE was developed in the months following the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Initially, LIne was created to find friends and relatives during and after natural disasters and in the first year, the number of users grew to 50 million. Afterwards, with the publication of games and stickers, there were already more than 400 million, which later became one one of the most popular apps in Japan, particularly among teenagers.

Emoticons, emoticons and stickers today, after more than 30 years, they have definitely begun to occupy a place in people’s everyday conversations and correspondence. According to research conducted in the United States, it was found that 74 percent of people in the United States regularly use stickers and emoticons in their online communications, sending an average of 96 emoticons or stickers per day. The reason for this explosion in use Emoji is that the creative characters developed by various companies help to express our feelings, help to add humor, sadness, happiness, etc.

The emoticons in the tables will be gradually replenished, so go to the site and look for the meaning of the desired emoticons.

Emoticons have become such a part of our lives that without them the alphabet looks incomplete, and messages seem dry and distant. But even such a frivolous and childishly simple task as arranging emojis has its own subtleties.

What do different emoticons mean?

With object emoticons, everything is simple: they mean what they represent. A ball is a ball, an alarm clock is an alarm clock, and there’s nothing to think about. But with face emoticons the task becomes more complicated. We are not always able to correctly guess emotions from the faces of living people, let alone the faces of koloboks. There are emoticons whose meaning is obvious:

Fun, laughter, joy, rejoicing.

Sadness, melancholy, melancholy, dissatisfaction.

Playful mood, teasing.

Surprise, amazement, shock, fear.

Anger, resentment, rage.

And several more similar ones - all possible options for families and romantic unions.

But among the emoticons there are also those whose meaning can be interpreted ambiguously, or even be completely confusing:

This emoticon depicts a person sobbing in three - well, in two - streams, however, in the version for Apple devices, due to raised eyebrows and a mouth that is not distorted from sobs, he is often perceived as laughing to the point of tears. Be careful with them: you want to indicate grief to them, but they will misunderstand you.

This emoticon is intended to represent silence. Instead, he just scares you to death.

If everything is more or less clear with the evil devil (“angry as hell”), then the cheerful devil is somewhat puzzling. Most likely, he is not only furious, but also looking forward to dancing on your opponent’s grave. But you, perhaps, just wanted to show originality and an unusual smiley.

Despite the fact that the three wise monkeys did not see, hear or speak anything precisely because of their wisdom, these muzzles cover their eyes, mouth and ears in shame, confusion and shock.

A set of cat emoticons for those who consider ordinary koloboks to be insufficiently expressive and want to add sweetness to their emotions.

Instead of “hello” and “bye,” you can wave your hand.

Raised hands, a gesture of joyful greeting or jubilation.

The applause is both sincere and sarcastic.

If in this picture you see hands folded in a prayer gesture, then for you the emoji may mean “thank you” or “I beg you.” Well, if you see a high-five happening here, it means you are a very cheerful person.

A raised index finger can emphasize the importance of a message or express a request to interrupt the interlocutor with a question, or it can simply indicate a previous message in the chat.

Fingers crossed for luck.

For some it’s “stop”, but for others it’s “high five!”

No, it's not a truffle. Not even a truffle at all.

Ogre and Japanese goblin. Looks like someone is missing the usual devils.

Liar. His nose grows like Pinocchio's every time he lies.

These are eyes wide with amazement, and the darting eyes of a scoundrel, and even a lustful look. If someone sends you such an emoticon in a comment to a photo, you can be sure that the photo is good.

And it's just an eye, and it's watching you.

New moon and full moon. It seems like nothing special, but these emoticons have their fans who value them for their creepy facial expressions.

A very common girl in purple. Her gestures mean OK (arms above head), “no” (arms crossed), “hello” or “I know the answer” (arm raised up). This character has another pose that confuses many - . According to the official version, it symbolizes a help desk employee. Apparently, she shows with her hand how to get to the city library.

Do you also see two tense faces here, presumably in an unfriendly mood? But they didn’t guess: according to Apple’s hints, this is an embarrassed face and a stubborn face. Who would have thought!

By the way, you can see hints for emoticons in the message window on if you open an emoji and hover over the emoticon you are interested in. Like this:

Another way to find out the meaning of an emoticon is to turn to emojipedia.org for help. On it you will find not only detailed interpretations of emoticons, but you can also see how the same emoticon looks on different platforms. Many unexpected discoveries await you.

Where are emoticons appropriate?

1. In informal friendly correspondence

Funny yellow faces are appropriate in a personal chat, where you share not so much information as your mood. With the help of emoticons, you will laugh at a joke, sympathize, and make faces at each other. This is where emotions belong.

2. When emotions splash over the edge and there are not enough words

Sometimes, when something very important happens in our lives, we are so overwhelmed by feelings that we are about to burst. Then we write an emotional post on Facebook or post a dazzling photo on Instagram and decorate it with a generous scattering of emoticons. Some people, of course, won’t like this, but what now, stifling all the bright sensations in yourself? The main thing is not to overuse such public displays of violent emotions: this will alienate subscribers and call into question your adequacy.

3. By agreement, to highlight messages in work correspondence

This is a very simple and convenient way to make important messages that require an urgent response visible. For example, great for these purposes. But you need to agree in advance which cases are considered urgent in your company and what emoticon you will use for this.

It’s important not to overdo it: if you have one emoticon for messages about emergency situations, a second for urgent issues, a third for important news, then soon all your work correspondence will turn into a New Year’s garland that no one looks at.

When is it better to do without emoticons?

1. In business correspondence

Work is no place for emotions. Here you are required to be calm, collected and professional. Even if you want to emphasize your friendliness or express concern about a situation, use , not emoticons, for these purposes.

2. When communicating with foreigners

This is especially true for gesture emoticons. For example, the person you wanted to express approval of will put an end to your good relationship with a person from Greece or Thailand. Of course, with this gesture you sent him to hell.

Therefore, if you are not confident in your deep knowledge of the peculiarities of the national culture of your interlocutor, do not take risks.

3. Oddly enough, when you discuss feelings and emotions

Feelings are a serious matter. If you are not just chatting, but revealing your soul or sharing something important, words will convey your feelings and experiences much more accurately than emoticons. “You are dearer to me than anyone in the world” means much more than ten hearts in a row. In the end, you only have one heart, so give it away.

Remember that emojis are a seasoning, not the main ingredient. You only need a small amount to add punch to your message.

Emoji language

Judging by the fact that today almost no personal correspondence is complete without emoticons, we can safely say that emoji have become an independent section of the language. Sometimes they even pretend to replace language: you can write an entire message using only emoticons. In the popular American TV show Ellen DeGeneres there is even a special section in which guests are invited to read a phrase where some of the words are replaced with emoji:

And here the name of the film is encrypted, which we invite you to guess.