1. The representation of a facial expression; such as, a smile or a frown which is created by typing a sequence of characters when sending an e-mail: Here are a few examples of emoticons:

• :-( [sad]
• :-) [smiling]
• (^o^) [laughing]
• (?_?) or (@_@) [don't know or sense of confusion]
• (^_-) or (^_~) [winking]
• >:-o [angry]
• <@:) [curly hair dunces hat]
• (-_-) [bored face]

2. A facial expression pictorially represented by punctuation marks and letters, usually to express a writer’s mood or feeling: Emoticons are often used to alert a responder to a person's feeling or temper regarding a statement, that can change and improve the interpretation of plain text.
3. Etymology: a portmanteau word of the English words emotion (or emote) and icon: "On web forums, instant messenges and online games, text emoticons are often automatically replaced with small equivalent images, all of which are now called emoticons."