emoticon

Name for those little sideways smiling (and not-smiling!) faces in email messages and other postings. Also known as "smiley". For example: "just kidding" represented by ;-)"I'm sad" represented by :-(If you don't get it, turn your head sideways and look again ;-)

"Art" form composed of punctuation. Sometimes used in E-mail or usenet news postings to reduce ambiguity or to entertain. Examples include the plain smiley, ":-)", the winking smiley, ";-)", etc. See also Smiley

These are the little text-based faces and objects you often see in e-mail and online chat. They help give the reader a sense of the writer's feelings and what they mean in their writing. For example, the classic =) shows that the writer is happy about something or that he is has taken a message in good humor. The =P is used to show frustration, a feeling of irony, or in can be used to say "Whatever..." A @-->-->--- is supposed to be a long-stemmed rose, which you can use to show affection -- pretty lame if you ask me. For a list of more emoticons as well as some Internet acronyms, check out this page.