😂 Face with Tears of Joy

😂 Face with Tears of Joy was Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year in 2015 and topped global usage rankings for most of the following decade. It means exactly what it looks like: laughing so hard that your eyes water.

Its very ubiquity has changed how it is read. Among teenagers it now signals someone slightly older, in the way that a certain typeface or turn of phrase does. It has not stopped being useful – it has just stopped being neutral.

Still the safest choice for "that is funny" in a mixed-age group, a work chat or a comment section. If you are writing for a young audience and want to sound current, 💀 does the same job.

• 😂😂😂 – repetition signals intensity.
• Not the cat again 😂

Peak popularity around 2015–2020. Still the single most-used emoji overall, but no longer the default among under-25s.

In 2015 the Oxford Dictionary named 😂 word of the year – the first and so far only time that was not a word. For years it was the single most-used emoji anywhere.

Since around 2020 it has read among younger users as a marker of older generations; people who are actually laughing type 💀 or 😭. TikTok argued this out in public. In overall usage 😂 still leads – just no longer with the youngest.

• 😂🤣 – Still the most widespread reaction to a joke – just not among the youngest anymore.
• 😂😇 – Face with Tears of Joy and Smiling Face with Halo
• 😂😁 – Face with Tears of Joy with Beaming Face with Smiling Eyes
• 😂😆 – Face with Tears of Joy and Grinning Squinting Face
• 😂😄 – Face with Tears of Joy with Grinning Face with Smiling Eyes
• 😂😅 – Face with Tears of Joy plus Grinning Face with Sweat

Easy to mix up with 😇 Smiling Face with Halo, 😁 Beaming Face with Smiling Eyes or 🤣 Rolling on the Floor Laughing. They look alike but do not mean the same thing – when in doubt, check the name.