Japanese

Noun

顔文字 ‎(shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 顏文字, hiragana かおもじ, romaji kaomoji, historical hiragana かほもじ)

1. (Internet) smiley, a sequence of keyboard characters used to represent a person's mood or emotion, especially (^_^) or (;_;) or other smiling depiction

Coordinate terms

• 絵文字 (えもじ) ‎(emoji): one special character

References

1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9