Kaomoji Meanings: How to Read, Use, and Make Japanese Emoticons
Brackets make the face and the characters inside make the eyes and mouth. Learn the parts and you can read or build any kaomoji.
Kaomoji (顔文字) is Japanese for “face characters”. Western emoticons like :) are read sideways, but kaomoji like (^-^) are upright faces. They spread on Japanese bulletin boards before emoji existed, and people still use them for moods that a single emoji cannot quite capture.
How a kaomoji is built
A kaomoji is a combination of a few parts. Once you know them, you can read faces you have never seen before.
| Part | Common characters | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Face | ( ) ʕ ʔ |
ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ a bear face |
| Eyes | ^ • ◕ T × |
(T_T) eyes streaming with tears |
| Mouth | ‿ ω ᴥ ▽ _ ﹏ |
(＾▽＾) a wide open smile |
| Cheeks | ｡ ๑ * |
(๑>ω<๑) blushing cheeks |
| Arms | ノ づ ง ٩ ۶ ╯ ＼ ／ |
＼(^o^)／ both arms up |
| Effects | ✧ 彡 ︵ zZ … |
(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ a sparkling wink |
The eyes change the mood the most. ^ is smiling, T is crying, × is exhausted, and - is blank. Some kaomoji borrow characters from other scripts. (눈_눈) uses the Korean word 눈, which means “eye”, as both eyes.
Picking one for the moment
| Mood | Kaomoji | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Happy | ＼(^o^)／ |
Yay |
| Glad to see you | (＾▽＾) |
Big smile |
| Cheering someone on | (ง •̀_•́)ง |
You got this |
| Comforting | (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ |
Hug |
| No idea | ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
Shrug |
| Sad | (T_T) (╥﹏╥) |
Tears, Sobbing |
| Unimpressed | (눈_눈) |
Side-eye |
| Angry | (⋋▂⋌) (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ |
Angry, Table flip |
| No reply | (๑-_-)ﾉ ✓✓ |
Left on read |
| Working late | φ(×_×;) |
Overtime |
| Rough morning | (×_×)っ旦 |
Running on coffee |
| Weekend morning | ▁▁(－ω－)▁▁zZ |
Won’t get up |
You can copy all of these from the kaomoji collection with one click.
Typing kaomoji
- Windows: press Windows key + period (
.) to open the emoji panel. It has a kaomoji tab with dozens of faces. - Mac: press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer and search for symbols such as “smile” or “arrow”.
- Phones: most keyboards have no kaomoji list, so copying one is the fastest way.
When it looks different after pasting
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ loses an arm on Discord
Discord formats messages with Markdown, where a backslash (\) means “show the next character literally”. Send ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as is and the left arm disappears, leaving ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
- On Discord, type the
/shrugcommand to insert the kaomoji with both arms. - To type it yourself, add backslashes:
¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯. - Wrapping it in backticks (
`) keeps it intact, but it then shows in a monospaced code style.
Accents float away from the face
The eyebrows in (ง •̀_•́)ง are combining marks drawn on top of •. Depending on the font, they can shift slightly or slide sideways. If the exact shape matters, save a PNG from the text art gallery and send it as an image.
Characters show up as boxes
Japanese characters such as ﾉ and ツ or the Thai character ๑ display on most phones, but older devices and some game chats may show boxes (□). In that case, pick a kaomoji made only of keyboard characters, such as (^o^).
Make your own
If no face fits, swap a part. Change the ✧ in (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ to ♡ for a heart wink, or add the arm ﾉ to (・ω・) to make it wave. Copy hard-to-type parts from the kaomoji collection and build from there.
(T_T) (╥﹏╥) (⋋▂⋌) (＾▽＾) ＼(^o^)／ (눈_눈) Kaomoji data from FontVibe · CC BY 4.0