A trie is a tree-like data structure that is commonly used for efficient searching and retrieval of strings. It organizes the keys in a hierarchical manner, where each node represents a character and the edges leading from the nodes represent the possible characters that can follow. The combination of the 🌳 (tree) and 🔍 (magnifying glass) emojis represents the trie's ability to efficiently search through a large set of strings by examining characters one by one, resembling the process of closely inspecting a tree with a magnifying glass.