The Word of the Year Is an Emoji
Tears of joy.
The word of the year isn’t even a word at all. For the first time ever, the official Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph: the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji. So why was it chosen? According to the Oxford imprint, the emoji “best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015” as this past year saw the use of emojis — and the “Tears of Joy” emoji in particular — skyrocket: usage of the word “emoji” tripled over that of 2014 while the “Tears of Joy” emoji made up 20% and 17% of all emojis used in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively.
The pictograph ultimately came out on top of a shortlist that included “ad blocker,” “Brexit,” “Dark Web,” “on fleek,” “lumbersexual,” “refugee,” “sharing economy” and “they.”
For more on the 2015 Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year, head on over to the official Oxford Dictionaries blog.
