Oxford Dictionaries' Word Of The Year Is An Emoji (And Not The One You're Thinking Of)

Oxford Dictionaries has named an emoji as their Word of the Year for 2015, encouraging this reaction across the globe: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The lucky emoji – or ‘pictograph’ as they describe it on Oxford’s official blog post, trying to be fancy – is the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’. It was supposedly chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected “the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.”

Probably not the best week to make that call, Oxford Dictionaries.

Apparently, ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ was the most used emoji worldwide in 2015, making up 20 per cent of all emojis used in the UK and 17 per cent of all emojis in the US.

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 is… 😂! https://t.co/LjJyxO8cvv #OxfordWOTY pic.twitter.com/Ced28y3I6F

— Oxford Dictionaries (@OxfordWords) November 16, 2015

The runners up to ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ on the Word of the Year shortlist include actual words like ‘sharing economy’, ‘on fleek’, ‘ad blocker’, ‘refugee’, ‘dark web’ and ‘lumbersexual’. Also included: ‘they’ (to “refer to a person of unspecified sex”) and ‘Brexit’ (in reference to the potential exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union).

What do you think about Oxford Dictionaries’ call? Is it poop emoji or clapping hands emoji?