japanese laugh

笑{わら}い means "laughter" and 笑{え}み means "smile". When used like this specifically with brackets (笑) it's short for laughing on social media, similar to LOL, in that refers to the meaning of laughing not the sound. Since 笑{わら}い is reads as "Warai" it's become casual to write "www" for laughter. father in law japanese