An emoticon, (sometimes called a smiley), is a string of text characters that is intended to represent a human facial expression and convey an emotion. They can be used to show humour and other feelings that are difficult to communicate in text-based environments such as chat rooms, instant messaging and e-mails. Without emoticons, the lack of verbal and visual cues can otherwise cause what were intended to be humorous, sarcastic, ironic or otherwise non-serious comments to be badly misinterpreted, which may result in arguments and misunderstandings. Emoticons therefore serve not only to spice uo your chat, but to clearly express your true feelings.

Hundreds of emoticons have been proposed, whereas only a few (listed below) are in common use:

(Note: You may find it easier to visualise emoticons if you tilt your head sideways, to the left).