Smiley

How to spell smiley

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce smiley

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does smiley mean?

1. adjectiveCheerful and tending to smile a great deal.
2. nounA simple round face symbol showing a smile, used to show friendliness in messages.

Smiley in a sentence

• adjective

  The receptionist greeted every visitor with a smiley welcome.

• noun

  She ended the email with a small yellow smiley to soften the tone.

• adjective

  He stayed smiley even after a long and tiring shift.

• noun

  The children drew a smiley on every page of the notebook.

Where does smiley come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built directly on the English verb 'smile', which comes from Middle English 'smilen', meaning to draw the lips into an expression of pleasure. That verb is related to Old Norse and other Germanic forms, and is ultimately connected to a much older root meaning 'to be astonished' or 'to laugh', the same family that gave Latin its word for wonder. The adjective 'smiley', meaning cheerful or full of smiles, was formed in English by adding the familiar '-y' suffix that turns a noun or verb into a 'full of' or 'tending to' adjective, much as in 'sleepy' or 'chatty'. In the late twentieth century 'smiley' also became a noun for the simple round cartoon face with two dots and a curved mouth, and later for the keyboard symbol made from a colon and a bracket. The spelling keeps the silent 'e' of 'smile' before the '-y', which is the small trap: it is not spelled 'smily', even though the 'e' is no longer pronounced as its own syllable.

How the word is built

• smile (from Middle English smilen: to smile)
• -y (adjective/noun suffix denoting tendency or likeness)