:) (an emoticon)

*emoticon /e-mot'-i-con/ n. (derivative of emotion and icon). An ideographic symbol constructed from mainly punctuation marks combined to resemble human faces or physical objects. For example, a colon followed by a closed parentheses resembles a smiling face :) when viewed sideways, which is meant to communicate a feeling of pleasantness or humor to the reader. Used to convey a feeling or emotion in electronic communications such as e-mail.


Click here for ideas about hypertext and vocabulary.

Click here to return to title.

Click here to return to Digressions 1.

Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted May 1997
Published by the International Reading Association, Inc.   ISSN 1096-1232