Meaning
A grinning yellow cat with closed, crescent-shaped eyes streaming with bright tears of laughter—the feline take on the iconic laughing-cry expression. The tears flow copiously, emphasizing that this is uncontrollable, joyful laughter rather than actual distress. The face is pure, uninhibited mirth.
This is internet slang gold for "I'm laughing really hard at this." It conveys genuine hilarity, often paired with memes, jokes, or absurdly funny observations. The cat twist adds a playful, less-serious energy than its human counterpart, making it feel more casual and less formal. It's become shorthand for "LOL" in messaging, especially among younger users and in communities that lean into silly humor.
When you send this, you're signaling that something genuinely cracked you up—not a polite chuckle, but real laughter. It works across meme replies, comedy videos, and absurd conversations. The tears make it clear this isn't sarcasm; you actually found it hilarious.
Platform variations exist but maintain the core image of a laughing cat with tears. This emoji has aged remarkably well since its introduction and remains one of the most-used reactions in digital culture. Approved as part of Unicode Emoji 0.6 in 2010, it's one of the original cat faces and has become iconic in online humor and meme culture.
Common Uses
- • Reacting to something hilarious or absurd
- • Expressing uncontrollable laughter online
- • Responding to memes and jokes
- • Showing you found something genuinely funny
Popular Combos
Did You Know?
This emoji is one of the most consistently used reactions across all platforms and has become so recognizable that many people forget it's a cat—they think of it as the universal 'laughing cry' symbol.
Keywords
Appears in Topics
Related Emoji
Technical Reference
Platform Shortcodes
:joy_cat: :joy_cat: :joy_cat: Developer Codes
| HTML (decimal) | 😹 |
| HTML (hex) | 😹 |
| CSS | \1F639 |
| JavaScript | \uD83D\uDE39 |
| Python | \U0001F639 |
| Java | \uD83D\uDE39 |
| Perl | \x{1F639} |
| PHP / Ruby | \x{1F639} |
| Punycode | xn--2r7d |
| URL Encoded | %F0%9F%98%B9 |
| UTF-8 Bytes | 0xF0 0x9F 0x98 0xB9 |
😹 in 28 languages
Names sourced from Unicode CLDR and emojibase.
| Language | Name |
|---|---|
| Bengali | আনন্দের কান্না সহ বেড়ালের মুখ |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 笑出眼泪的猫 |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 感動的貓臉 |
| Danish | kat med glædestårer |
| Dutch | kat met tranen van vreugde |
| English | cat with tears of joy |
| English (UK) | cat with tears of joy |
| Estonian | rõõmupisarais kass |
| Finnish | kissa ja naurunkyyneleet |
| French | chat qui pleure de joie |
| German | Katze mit Freudentränen |
| Hindi | खुशी के आँसू वाली बिल्ली का चेहरा |
| Hungarian | macska örömkönnyekkel |
| Italian | gatto con lacrime di gioia |
| Japanese | 嬉し泣きする猫 |
| Korean | 기쁨의 눈물을 흘리는 고양이 얼굴 |
| Lithuanian | katės snukutis su džiaugsmo ašaromis |
| Malay | kucing dengan air mata kegembiraan |
| Norwegian | katt med gledestårer |
| Polish | kot ze łzami radości |
| Portuguese | rosto de gato com lágrimas de alegria |
| Russian | смеющийся до слез кот |
| Spanish | gato llorando de risa |
| Spanish (Mexico) | cara de gato llorando de risa |
| Swedish | kattansikte med glädjetårar |
| Thai | แมวร้องไห้ดีใจ |
| Ukrainian | кіт зі сльозами радості |
| Vietnamese | mặt mèo có nước mắt vui sướng |