Oxford Dictionaries seems to think so. For the first time, the Word of the Year is not even a word. It's a pictograph: an emoji officially called 'Face with Tears of Joy'.

"There were other strong contenders from a range of fields, outlined below, but [😂] was chosen as the 'word' that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015," according to the Oxford Dictionary blog.

How did Face with Tears of Joy emerge victorious, defeating such formidable contenders as they, lumbersexual and refugee in the pitched battle to embody the year that was?

It was the world's most used emoji in 2015, according to figures compiled by Oxford University Press and mobile technology firm SwiftKey.

In 2015 it made up 20 per cent of all emojis used in the UK and 17 per cent of those used in the US, the research found.

As for the word emoji – a Japanese loanword derived from e "picture" + moji "letter, character" – it has appeared in English since 1997. But data from the Oxford Dictionaries Corpus shows use of the word more than trebled in 2015, compared with 2014.

"Although emoji have been a staple of texting teens for some time, emoji culture exploded into the global mainstream over the past year," the Oxford Dictionaries press release reads.

"Emoji have come to embody a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally expressive, and obsessively immediate."

The announcement has been met with a mixture of ridicule and disappointment in some corners.

"Like a tragically out-of-touch old person trying desperately to reclaim his youth, Oxford Dictionaries is clinging to every gimmick it can to prove it's still relevant," sniped nymag.com 

Techcrunch.com was similarly aghast: "I was raised to trust everything the dictionary told me, but damn. What is going on with the world?"

But it's probably Esquire's Luke O'Neil who hit the nail on the head:

These words made the shortlist for 2015:

ad blocker, noun: A piece of software designed to prevent advertisements from appearing on a web page.

Brexit, noun: A term for the potential or hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, from British + exit.

Dark Web, noun: The part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable.

on fleek, adjectival phrase: Extremely good, attractive, or stylish.

lumbersexual, noun: A young urban man who cultivates an appearance and style of dress (typified by a beard and check shirt) suggestive of a rugged outdoor lifestyle.

refugee, noun: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

sharing economy, noun: An economic system in which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either for free or for a fee, typically by means of the Internet.

they (singular), pronoun: Used to refer to a person of unspecified sex.

Sydney Morning Herald.