Text Emoticons to Copy and Paste
Copy classic text emoticons with simple keyboard characters. Find happy, playful, surprised, and unsure faces, plus meanings and tips for text-only messages.
Tap a card to copy. Paste into your profile or message, then make it your own.
Text emoticons build a face from punctuation and letters. Most classic Western faces are read sideways: the colon forms the eyes, a hyphen can form a nose, and a bracket forms the mouth.
This collection uses basic ASCII characters. It is useful when elaborate kaomoji do not render well, though some messaging apps automatically convert familiar combinations into emoji. Meanings are informal and depend on the conversation.
Happy and friendly
A smile, a broad grin, or a wink to soften a casual message.
Playful and surprised
Tongue-out faces, wide-eyed surprise, and a sunglasses face.
Unsure and quiet
A frown, an uncertain mouth, or a neutral expression. Add words when the feeling matters.
How to use these
- Add the face after the sentence with a space so it is easy to spot.
- Use words alongside unfamiliar faces; punctuation alone can be misread.
- A hyphen adds a nose. Both :) and :-) are common smile forms.
Platform notes
- Some apps replace typed emoticons with graphical emoji when a message is sent.
- Plain punctuation is widely supported, but a service can still limit what is allowed in a profile field.
Example combos
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Quick FAQ
What is the difference between an emoticon and kaomoji?
An emoticon is a face made from text characters. Kaomoji are a style of text face usually read upright, such as (^_^), while classic faces such as :-) are read sideways.
What does :/ mean?
It often suggests uncertainty, hesitation, or mild dissatisfaction. Tone varies, so explain what you mean if there is a chance of confusion.
Why did my text face turn into an emoji?
Your messaging app may perform automatic substitution. Check its text or emoji preferences, or use a code-formatting option where supported if you need to preserve literal punctuation.