A man received three months of probation for sending the “thinking emoji” to his estranged wife in defiance of a protection from abuse order.

The digital age of wordless communication took front and center Thursday in a Butler County courtroom where an ambiguous emoji proved to be a Brady Township man's undoing.

Jason E. Cyphert, 48, admitted he texted the “thinking emoji” — nothing else — to his estranged wife earlier this month.

The bright yellow symbol was enough to earn him three months on probation for violating his wife's protection from abuse order.

State police last week charged Cyphert with indirect criminal contempt for sending the emoji from his cell phone May 12 to his wife's phone in Fairview Township.

The 47-year-old victim on March 15 obtained a protective order that barred Cyphert from having any contact with her for three years, according to court records.

At Tuesday's hearing before Judge Kelley Streib, and without an attorney, Cyphert pleaded guilty to the charge.

He faced a maximum penalty of six months in the county jail and a $1,000 fine.

But the defendant and prosecutor Mark Lope, a county assistant district attorney, worked out a plea agreement, which Streib accepted.

Streib sentenced Cyphert to three months on probation. He also was ordered to remain at the Ellen O'Brien Gaiser Addiction Center for up to 90 days and undergo a mental health evaluation.

Cyphert had previously admitted himself to the Gaiser center. Streib's order made it mandatory.

He is to abide by all treatment recommendations, the judge advised the defendant.

“If you violate any of those conditions,” she told Cyphert, “you're going to end up back in jail.”

Following the hearing, Lope said the case in part symbolized how emojis have become an increasingly central mode of communicating expressions, emotions and opinions.

He said his own digital dialogues even include emojis, from time to time.

But what Cyphert was thinking when he sent the “thinking emoji” or what its intended message was, Lope noted, was irrelevant.

No contact under the PFA order, he said, means no contact — of any kind.

Cyphert, meanwhile, is awaiting trial on unrelated charges that he repeatedly sent threatening and harassing text messages to his wife last year.

Police arrested the defendant in November on charges of stalking, harassment and disorderly conduct.

Those alleged texts led the victim to obtain a temporary and a subsequent final PFA against Cyphert.