Oxford University Press and SwiftKey teamed up to produce the word of the year, which is technically not a word.
US Magazine reported that the best and the most used emoji will be Oxford's word of the year. In one of its blog posts, Oxford Dictionaries announced the Word of the Year 2015 is actually a pictograph. The I'm-crying-I'm-laughing-so-hard emoji was chosen to be 2015's word of the year because it best reflects the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.
Oxford University Press, together with Swiftkey, a leading mobile technology business, explored and researched the frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emojis across the world. They found out that the most used emoji worldwide in 2015 is the "Face With Tears of Joy."
"SwiftKey identified that Face With Tears of Joy made up 20 percent of all emojis used in the UK in 2015, and 17 percent of those in the US: a sharp rise from 4 percent and 9 percent respectively in 2014. The word 'emoji' has seen a similar surge: Although it has been found in English since 1997, usage more than tripled in 2015 over the previous year according to data from the Oxford Dictionaries Corpus," Oxford University Press explained.
The Oxford University Press also added that emojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens. Instead, they have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers.
An emoji is a small digital image that uses electronic communication in expressing a person's feeling or emotion. The term "emoji" is a combination of the Japanese words "e" which means "picture" and moji which means "letter" or "character."
Before Oxford decided in using the emoji as the word of the year, seven other words -- real words or phrases -- were acknowledged: Ad blocker, Brexit, Dark Web, On fleek, Lumbersexual, Refugee, Sharing economy and They.
It can be recalled that last year's Word of the Year is "vape," which means an electronic cig or to inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device. In 2013, it was "selfie," a term that still remains on trend today.
