Passive-aggressive

If someone acts in a “passive-aggressive” way, they express negative or hostile feelings indirectly instead of directly. They often disguise negative feelings or messages in fake positive words.

For example, someone might say to you: “I love your new haircut! It makes you look so much younger.” That sounds like a compliment at first, but is it really? It’s hard to say: they might be saying you’re old or that you’re pretending to be a different age. That might be a criticism disguised as a compliment.

Sometimes emojis can seem passive-aggressive. If your boss gives you negative feedback and ends it with a smiley-face emoji, is she really smiling? Or is that a fake smile?

Likewise, if someone responds with a thumbs-up emoji, that might seem like the person agrees with what you’ve said. But it’s not always the case. Some people think the thumbs-up emoji is passive-aggressive. They think it’s a sarcastic or inauthentic way of saying “okay” or “I agree.”