Oxford Dictionary's word of the year is not a 'word'

Even if we are a little saddened by the fact that an emoji managed to win word of the year, at least we can be happy that it was an emoji representing uncontrollable laughter and happiness.

The face with tears of joy emoji is one among the words in the list like, Ad blocker, Brexit, on fleek, Dark Web, refugee, lumbersexual, sharing economy and they. Of course, "emoji" has been floating around the English-speaking world for a couple of years now, but it's not like the "Face with Tears of Joy" symbol just came into being in the last 12 months, either.

"Traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication", Slate quoted Oxford Dictionaries President Casper Grathwohl as saying.

The Oxford Dictionaries has chosen its Word of the Year for 2015, and it is not a word, but an emoji portraying a "face with tears of joy".

Likewise the use of the word emoji, which first entered the English language in 1997, has more than tripled in 2015 compared to 2014.

Emoji, which first gained popularity among young people, are now spreading among other generations and influential figures.

Moreover, 2015 saw an exponential rise in the word emoji, also referred to as an emoticon.

"Since emoji characters began displaying on Twitter in April 2014, they have become a practical and fun way to convey extra meaning and emotion in the space of 140 characters", Twitter's senior data specialist Joe Cruse wrote in a . This year, Oxford University Press have partnered with a leading mobile technology business, Swiftkey to explore the most commonly used emojis in 2015.

They discovered that emoji was the most used worldwide in 2015.

The UK-based dictionary publisher has chosen the "Face with Tears of Joy" emoji (its official name) as the 2015 victor. Instead, they have been adopted as a nuanced form of expression.