Emoticon

An emoticon is a combination of keyboard characters used to represent emotions or expressions in written communication. For example, a smiley face like :) suggests happiness, while a sad face like :( conveys sadness. Emoticons help to convey tone and feeling in text-based messages, where facial expressions and body language are absent. They are commonly used in informal communication, such as texting or social media, to add emotional context and clarify intent. Over time, emoticons have evolved into more complex images called emojis, which can represent a wider range of emotions, objects, and concepts.