An Emmy is a major television award and also the name of the statuette that winners receive.

Basic meaning

  • An Emmy is an annual award given for outstanding work in television, such as acting, writing, directing, and production.
  • The word also refers to the physical trophy: a small golden statuette given to winners.

Where the name comes from

  • The name “Emmy” comes from “Immy,” a nickname for the image orthicon tube, an important early TV camera part.
  • The statuette shows a winged woman (art) holding an atom/electron (science), symbolizing the blend of creativity and technology in TV.

How people use the word

  • In everyday speech, “to win an Emmy” means someone or a show has been honored as one of the best in television that year.
  • Emmys are often mentioned alongside the Oscars (film), Grammys (music), and Tonys (theater) as one of the top American entertainment awards.

So if you see “what does Emmy mean,” it’s almost always about this TV award and its trophy, not a separate dictionary word with many different meanings.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.