The Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year, is actually not a word, but an emoji. According to Oxford University Press an emoji is a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication. “The emoji that won as this dictionary’s ‘word’ of the year is the emoji known as ‘face with tears of joy’.
Oxford Dictionaries explained their decision for this year saying that “emojis have come to embody a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally expressive and obsessively immediate.” This year, Oxford University Press have partnered with a leading mobile technology business, Swiftkey to explore the most commonly used emojis in 2015. The ‘tears of joy’ emoji was according to Swiftkey the most used emoji globally in 2015.
