Image: Wikimedia Commons

smiley

Stylized representation of a smiling humanoid face

EntityQ11241

Also known as smiley face · happy face · :)

Subclass of: emoticon
, illustration

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A smiley, also known as a smiley face, is a basic ideogram representing a smiling face. Since the 1950s, it has become part of popular culture worldwide, used either as a standalone ideogram or as a form of communication, such as emoticons. The smiley began as two dots and a line representing eyes and a mouth. More elaborate designs emerged in the 1950s, featuring noses, eyebrows, and outlines. New York radio station WMCA used a yellow and black design for its "Good Guys!" campaign in the early 1960s. More yellow-and-black designs appeared in the 1960s and 1970s, including works by Harvey Ross Ball in 1963, and Franklin Loufrani in 1971. The Smiley Company, founded by Franklin Loufrani, claims to hold the rights to a version of the smiley face in over 100 countries. It has become one of the top 100 licensing companies globally.

Overview

All data

25 statements · 4% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Unicode character: ☺ statement is subject of: ☺
☻ statement is subject of: ☻
🙂 statement is subject of: 🙂
Different from: :)
:3
Depicts: face
smile
Discovered by: Harvey Ball

On other databases

13 identifiers linking smiley across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

externally sourced

Source last edited October 5, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). smiley (Q11241). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/smiley-Q11241