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    Each year, the famous Oxford Dictionaries chooses its Word of the Year. The word is carefully chosen depending on how popular it is and how well it explains the year. However, this year they didn't actually choose a word at all. Instead, they chose a “face with tears（眼泪） of joy” emoji (表情符号).

    This was the world's most used emoji in 2015, according to research done by the Oxford University Press. It made up 20 percent of all emojis used in the UK and 17 percent of those used in the US.

    Emojis started from Japan in the 1990s. Through the years, the simple, small pictures have changed the way people communicate online. According to New Yorker magazine, a survey in 2013 showed that 74 percent of people in the US and 82 percent in China had used emojis. About 6, 000,000,000 emoji pictures are flying around the world every day through messages. Although some worry that emojis will make people's language skills weak, fans say they are fun and help them express their feelings more easily.

    “Emojis are no longer just for sending messages to teenagers. Instead, they have become a kind of expression, which can cross language barriers (障碍),” Oxford Dictionaries said in a statement, explaining their uncommon choice. “Emoji culture has become so popular that emojis have their own way and stories.”

    Some even think emojis can take the place of words. Fred Benenson, an American data (数据) engineer, translated American novel Moby Dick into Emoji Dick. The book has even been kept by the US Library of Congress (美国国会图书馆).