Oxford Dictionaries Word Of The Year isn't a word

Oxford Dictionaries Word Of The Year for 2015 isn’t a word, it’s an emoji, which they label as a “pictograph.” To be specific, they chose the “Face With Tears Of Joy” emoji, as it has become known with that description. 

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So, why did a dictionary decide on a picture instead of a word for Word Of The Year? As they explain, the “Face With Tears Of Joy” emoji was chosen because it was the most-used emoji worldwide throughout 2015. 

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Additionally, according to data from the Oxford Dictionaries Corpus, usage of the word “emoji” has more than tripled in 2015 when compared to 2014. Data compiled into a graph can be found below.