emoji

Noun

A digital graphic icon with a unique code point used to represent a concept, object, person, animal or place, originally used in Japanese text messaging but since adopted internationally in other contexts such as social media. Or, by extension, any non-standard emoji-like image inserted inline in text, i.e. an image emoticon.

Origin / Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 絵文字(えもじ) (emoji), from 絵(え) (e, “picture”) + 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”). False cognate of English emotion and emoticon, but the coincidental phonetic resemblance may have facilitated its adoption into English.https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Loanwords_and_Japanese_Identity/VAymEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=emoji&pg=PA184

Scrabble Score: 14

emoji: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
emoji: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
emoji: not valid in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 17

emoji: valid Words With Friends Word