While the Founders (as MTV calls the generation after the Millennials) may find it hard to believe, before smartphones, typing an alphabet took numerous button presses and emotion was denoted with the use of punctuation. In 1999, things changed when Japanese based Shigetaka Kurita created tiny pictorial emotions to fit into a restrictive character space on a web platform. Since then, there’s been no looking back for the emoji. Its popularity has wizzed beyond Japan and its cultural influence has grown vastly beyond operating systems to even social media platforms acknowledging the yellow faced little guy today.

emojis meaning

And it isn’t for no reason that brands today are jumping on the bandwagon like Twitter including emojis in popular hashtags for that of the Pope’s US visit. Creating their very own emoji has caught on with Burger King doing so for their chicken fries and and Dove, for their ‘Love Your Curls’ campaign. And we cannot fail to mention how popular Kim Kardashian’s app for emojis i.e. called ‘Kimoji’ is, which reached 9,000 downloads per millisecond within minutes of it launching on the App store.

meaning of emojis

What makes the salsa dancing girl and red thumping heart some of the most popular emojis are its ability to denote emotion without any words. So if you have a favorite, whether it is the ‘princess girl’ or ‘tears of joy face’, which even gained the honour of being the Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year 2015, there is a real emoji meaning which it was intended for and there is the general meaning that we use the emoji for. Read on to know what your favorite emojis actually mean...

 

Tongue out emoji

Tongue out emoji

What we think it means - Joking around or pulling your legs

What it actually means - Delicious. While we often mistake the tongue out for a ‘kidding around’ face, it it actually meant to denote a slurp, something you’d do after a delicious meal.

 

Hair flip emoji

Hair flip emoji

What we think it means - Sassiness or sarcasm, which denoted by a ‘care-a-damn’ hair flip

What it actually means - Information. That’s right! The pink clad woman is supposed to be an information desk personnel who isn’t flipping her hair in a sassy manner but is actually holding out her hand to ask ‘how may I assist you?’

 

Shooting star emoji

Shooting star emoji

What we think it means - Magical or wonderful, denoted by the shooting star

What it actually means - Dizzy. The gold star shooting ahead isn’t meant to talk about magic and wonder but is meant as an expression of feeling dizziness, like those seen around the heads of cartoon characters.

 

Thinking emoji

Thinking emoji

What we think it means - Deep thought or serious thinking

What it actually means - Apology. The japanese practice, Dogeza, involves kneeling in front of someone or bowing down to show respect or apology, which is depicted by the boy in blue.

 

White flower emoji

White flower emoji

What we think it means - Cherry blossom flowers or paper doily

What it actually means - Well done. Japanese school teachers reward their students but instead of using gold stars, they use a white stamp with red writing that translates to ‘You have done very well’.

 

Bunny eared women emoji

Bunny eared women emoji

What we think it means - Your gal pal and you

What it actually means - The playboy bunny. Instead of two girls having a fun night out, the bunny ears emoji pays tribute to the sexy playboy bunnies who have enthralled the playboy magazine readers.

 

Breathing heavily emoji

Breathing heavily emoji

What we think it means - Fuming with anger

What it actually means - Triumph. Often mistaken as frustratingly breathing out of the nostrils, this emoji actually signifies a triumphant face who is exhaling a sigh of victory after conquering great heights.

 

Hideous face emoji

Hideous face emoji

What we think it means - We woke up looking like this

What it actually means - An ogre. According to Japanese folklore, Namahage is a frightening ogre who men dress up as on New Year’s Eve to scare away any evil spirits.

Image Credits
AdWeek, Emojipedia, Charbase, Polyvore, Techwelkin, Teen Vogue