Difference between a symbol and a word [closed]

Recently Oxford Dictionaries named the Tears of Joy emoticon as word of the year. What is the difference between a symbol and a word?

You ask this:

What is the difference between a symbol and a word?

Yet, in context, it seems you are asking this:

What is the difference between an emoticon and a word?

These are distinct questions. 'Emoticons', also known as 'emojis', and 'words' are all 'symbols'--but the class of 'symbols' includes many other things that are neither 'emojis' nor 'words'. The only real difference between 'words' and 'symbols' is perhaps uninteresting: 'words' are a subset of the class of 'symbols'.

'Emojis' are also a subset of 'symbols'. While some emojis may be considered as 'words' in some instances, in other instances emojis may be considered as 'phrases'. This is evident in, for example, the emoji denoting 'happy' as compared to the emoji denoting 'laughter with tears of joy'.

'Emojis' are generally considered to be a type of pictograph. Simply, they are elements of a system of pictorial writing:

pictograph, n.
1. A pictorial symbol or sign, esp. one representing a word or phrase; a record or system of writing consisting of pictorial symbols.
Chiefly used with reference to ancient systems of writing.

["pictograph, n.". OED Online. September 2015. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/143492 (accessed December 01, 2015).]

Insofar as emoji pictographs represent English words or phrases, they may be considered just that--English words and phrases.

As Hatshepsut, you are undoubtedly familiar with pictographs. They constituted part of Egyptian hieroglyphics. For example,

The glyphs [of hieroglyphics] have both semantic and phonetic values. For example, the glyph for crocodile is a picture of a crocodile and also represents the sound "msh". When writing the word for crocodile, the Ancient Egyptians combined a picture of a crocodile with the glyphs which spell out "msh". Similarly the hieroglyphs for cat, miw, combine the glyphs for m, i and w with a picture of a cat.

(From "Ancient Egyptian Scripts" at Omniglot.)

So also 'emojis' are glyphs with semantic values in a system of writing. They may represent words or phrases, as explained in the foregoing. They do not represent a phonetic value, and function as determinatives in the writing system of English, just as the drawing of a crocodile functioned as a determinative in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

People will disagree with this.

A symbol is a thing with associated meanings; it can have a name and an iconic representation. A word is a sound (or series of sounds) which a human being produces and which is understood by other human beings to have one or more meanings; it can have a graphic or typographic representation.

Seems crazy to have to now define word, but here we are:

A unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes black·bird· from black· bird·. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.

As compared with symbol

Something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.

In short: something that represents something else vs. something that can be spoken and consists of smaller grammatical units