Learn how to discover the meaning of any emoji on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac instead of guessing what specific emoticons are meant to express.
Wait, what does this emoji mean? That’s the question I ask myself every time I encounter a weird-looking emoticon. Not every emoji is explicit. Take the one with two hands together as an example. Is it two people high-fiving each other? Or is it a person praying? As I said, it’s not always obvious.
If you, too, are sometimes in doubt about what specific emoji means, we’ve put together a few tips that will help you discover their definition.
Find out what an emoji means on a Mac
There are a couple of ways to discover the meaning of any emoji on a Mac.
Messages app
Open the Messages app and click the smiley face to bring up the emoji keyboard, then scroll to and hover over a desired emoji. A yellow tooltip appears after a moment or two, providing the emoji description.
Emoji & Symbols Character Viewer
Open the Character Viewer by clicking the Edit > Emoji & Symbols menu in an app or press the Control + Command + Space bar keys. Now click Emoji in the sidebar, select the emoji that interests you, and you shall see its description in the rightmost column.
Find out what an emoji means on an iPhone or iPad
You can find the meaning of any emoji on your iPhone or iPad using the text-to-speech accessibility feature or a third-party emoji app from the App Store.
Speak Selection
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content, and turn on Speak Selection. Next, create a new document like an email, note or text, then insert a desired emoji character. Double tap the emoji to select it and choose Speak from the floating menu. Your iPhone will speak aloud the emoji description.
Emoji dictionary apps
The App Store has some nice emoji dictionary apps that you can use to discover the meaning and full names of any emoji characters. I recommend Emoji Meanings Dictionary List, a free app that provides emoji descriptions.
Learn more about emotions on Emojipedia
Emojipedia is to emoji characters what Wikipedia is to global knowledge. Accessible on your computer or phone, this website catalogs every emoticon and provides detailed information about them. When you look up an emoji on your iPhone (select it, then choose Look Up > Search Web), initial results are from Emojipedia. While Emojipedia is the ultimate reference for emoticons, it can be an overkill if all you need is a quick emoji definition.
Do you know about other ways to define any emoji? If so, be sure to share them with fellow readers in the commenting section down below.
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