Emoticons JSON Dataset

A collection of classic text emoticons (smileys made from ASCII characters) with their meanings and categories. Useful for sentiment analysis, chat features, or nostalgic fun.

Quick Stats

• 20 emoticons
• ~2 KB file size
• Fields: emoticon, meaning, category

Download

• Download JSON
• Open in JSONLint

Schema

Field	Type	Description	Example
emoticon	string	ASCII text emoticon	":)"
meaning	string	What it represents	"Happy"
category	string	Emotional category	"positive"

Sample Data

{
  "emoticons": [
    {
      "emoticon": ":)",
      "meaning": "Happy",
      "category": "positive"
    },
    {
      "emoticon": ":D",
      "meaning": "Big smile",
      "category": "positive"
    },
    {
      "emoticon": ";)",
      "meaning": "Wink",
      "category": "playful"
    },
    {
      "emoticon": ":(",
      "meaning": "Sad",
      "category": "negative"
    }
  ]
}

Categories

• positive - Happy, excited, loving emotions
• negative - Sad, angry, disappointed emotions
• playful - Winks, jokes, silly expressions
• neutral - Uncertain, thinking, mixed feelings

Usage Examples

JavaScript - Sentiment Detection

const response = await fetch('https://jsonlint.com/datasets/emoticons.json');
const data = await response.json();

// Create a lookup map
const emoticonMap = {};
data.emoticons.forEach(e => {
  emoticonMap[e.emoticon] = e;
});

// Detect sentiment in text
function detectSentiment(text) {
  const found = data.emoticons.filter(e => text.includes(e.emoticon));
  return found.map(e => ({ emoticon: e.emoticon, category: e.category }));
}

console.log(detectSentiment("Great job! :) :D"));
// [{ emoticon: ":)", category: "positive" }, { emoticon: ":D", category: "positive" }]

Python - Sentiment Scoring

import requests

data = requests.get('https://jsonlint.com/datasets/emoticons.json').json()

# Simple sentiment scoring
scores = {'positive': 1, 'playful': 0.5, 'neutral': 0, 'negative': -1}

def analyze_sentiment(text):
    score = 0
    for e in data['emoticons']:
        if e['emoticon'] in text:
            score += scores.get(e['category'], 0)
    return score

print(analyze_sentiment("Great job! :) :D"))  # 2
print(analyze_sentiment("Oh no :("))          # -1

cURL / jq

# Get all positive emoticons
curl -s https://jsonlint.com/datasets/emoticons.json | \
  jq '.emoticons | map(select(.category == "positive")) | .[].emoticon'

# List emoticons with their meanings
curl -s https://jsonlint.com/datasets/emoticons.json | \
  jq '.emoticons[] | "\(.emoticon) = \(.meaning)"'

Use Cases

Chat Applications

Detect emoticons in messages for auto-reactions or sentiment display.

Sentiment Analysis

Use categories to score the emotional tone of text messages or social media posts.

Data Cleaning

Normalize text data by replacing or removing emoticons before NLP processing.

Content Moderation

Identify potentially negative or aggressive content based on emoticon usage.

Emoticons Included

Emoticon	Meaning	Category
:)	Happy	positive
:(	Sad	negative
;)	Wink	playful
:D	Big smile	positive
XD	Laughing	positive
:P	Tongue out	playful
:O	Surprised	neutral
:/	Skeptical	negative
:|	Neutral	neutral
>:(	Angry	negative
:'(	Crying	negative
<3	Love/Heart	positive
^_^	Happy (anime)	positive
-_-	Annoyed	negative
o_O	Confused	neutral

Plus kaomoji-style emoticons like shrug, table flip, and more.

Source

This dataset is maintained by JSONLint. Emoticons collected from common usage patterns.

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