Tell it apart
| Aspect | 😂 | 💀 |
|---|---|---|
| Literal picture | Crying with laughter | A skull |
| Tone | Warm, sincere | Deadpan, ironic |
| Associated with | Millennials and older | Gen Z |
| In Unicode since | 2010 | 2010 |
Both mean 'that's very funny'. 😂 reads as warm and sincere; 💀 reads as deadpan, and to many younger readers it is the current one.
What it doesn't mean
Many younger users say they avoid it, and 💀 and 😭 took over much of its work. But it is still among the most used emoji overall, and younger users sometimes send it ironically, often in long rows.
Oxford Dictionaries chose this one for 2015, announcing it on 16 November that year. The pick is about what best reflects the year's mood, not about dictionary entries.
What it really means
😂 is the emoji that won a dictionary prize. In November 2015 Oxford Dictionaries named Face with Tears of Joy its Word of the Year. That year it accounted for about one in five emoji sent in the UK and about one in six in the US.
Its meaning has never been in doubt: something is so funny that you are crying with laughter. It reached Unicode in 2010, from Japanese mobile emoji sets, and went global when Apple shipped it in 2011. For roughly a decade it was the most-used emoji there was.
Which is exactly what made it unfashionable. In March 2021 TODAY reported that many Gen Z users now saw 😂 as something their parents used, and had switched to 💀 for laughter. Around the same time, 😭 briefly overtook it as the top emoji on Twitter. The meaning hadn't changed; the people using it had.
So the same message now carries an age signal. To older readers, 😂 is just a laugh. To some younger readers it mainly marks the sender as older, which was the point of the 2021 coverage. When younger users do send it, it is often ironic, repeated in long rows for exaggeration.
None of this makes it wrong to use. It is still one of the most popular emoji in the world, and the reader who matters most is the one you are writing to. If they send 😂, send it back.
Where it comes from
- 2010
Unicode 6.0 adds Face with Tears of Joy, taken over from the emoji sets of Japanese mobile carriers.
- 2011
Apple's iOS update makes it available worldwide.
- November 2015
Oxford Dictionaries names it Word of the Year: it made up about 20% of emoji used in the UK and 17% in the US that year.
- 2021
😭 briefly overtakes it as the most-used emoji on Twitter, and the press reports that Gen Z sees 😂 as an older person's emoji.
In real life
- 'The dog has learned to open the fridge 😂😂' — a sincere laugh, the way the emoji was meant.
- A 40-year-old sends 😂 in the family chat; a 19-year-old replies 💀. Both are laughing at the same video.
- 'ok 😂😂😂😂😂😂' — from some younger users, a long row can be ironic: laughing at how hard the joke is trying.
Questions
Q01What does 😂 mean?
It means something is so funny you're crying with laughter. It is the most direct 'LOL' in emoji form.
Q02Is the laughing-crying emoji uncool now?
To some younger users, yes. TODAY reported in 2021 that many in Gen Z saw it as an emoji their parents use, and Wikipedia notes it was largely replaced by 😭 and 💀 among people in their mid-20s and younger. Among older users it is still the default laugh, and it remains one of the most used emoji anywhere.
Q03Why was 😂 Word of the Year?
Oxford Dictionaries chose it for 2015 because it best reflected the year's mood and was the most-used emoji worldwide that year, about 20% of all emoji used in the UK and 17% in the US.
Q04What is the official name of 😂?
Face with Tears of Joy, code point U+1F602, added in Unicode 6.0 in 2010.
Sources
- Face with Tears of Joy — Emojipedia (Unicode 6.0, Oxford 2015, Twitter ranking 2021–22).
- Face with Tears of Joy emoji — Wikipedia (2015 usage shares, iOS 2011, generational shift).
- Gen Z wants millennials to know the laugh-cry emoji is over — TODAY (March 2021).
- Emoji Versions chart — Unicode Consortium.