Where it comes from
It is a sideways Western emoticon, read by tilting your head left, unlike upright Japanese kaomoji such as (≧▽≦). Adding more D's (XDDD) makes the laugh bigger; lowercase xD is a slightly softer version.
When to use it
Use it to react to jokes, memes, and funny fails in casual chats and gaming. It looks dated or childish to some, and doesn't belong in formal messages.
Examples
- He tripped on the same step twice XD
- My autocorrect changed "meeting" to "meatball" XD
Variants to copy
What it is made of
Every character in the face with its Unicode code point — handy if one shows up as a box on a friend's phone.
X
U+0058latin capital letter xD
U+0044latin capital letter d