Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year isn’t even a word

Oh-no-ji! That’s right. Oxford Dictionaries has picked an emoji as its go-to word of 2015.

Fans of emojis may be literally because that emotional emoticon has been named the word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Earlier this month the Collins Dictionaries also released its words of the year for 2015, which did not include any emojis, but did include “dadbod”, a word that fortunately has yet to inspire its own emoji.

Oxford says it partnered with keyboard app maker SwiftKey to determine that the “Face with Tears of Joy” made up 20 per cent of all the emojis used in the United Kingdom in 2015, and 17 per cent of those in the US. Recent winners of Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year also reflected changing digital trends. So, apparently, for this year, that’s the crying/happy emoji. It is a cartoon yellow face, shedding two giant tears.

“You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication”, said Oxford Dictionaries’ president Casper Grathwohl in a statement. Other contenders included “ad blocker”, “refugee”, and “lumbersexual”, or a person who’s appearance (usually including beard and a flannel shirt) gives off the appearance of a rugged lumberjack. Emoji’s are words now.

Every year, the team reviews candidates for word of the year and then debates their merits, eventually choosing one that captures the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year. Inspired by comics and street signs, the name for the alphanumeric images comes from combining the Japanese words for picture (e-) and character (moji).

Dark Web, noun: The part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable.