Clarity: Often misread
This emoji is frequently used with a meaning different from its official description.
😭 A face wailing with streams of tears
😭 Often used for laughter or exaggeration, not actual crying
Context: can mean very funny OR very sad
- • Has a well-known double meaning — "Often used for laughter or exaggeration, not actual crying" beyond its literal depiction
Meaning
Maximum emotional expression: this face shows closed or nearly-closed eyes, an open mouth in an unbridled cry, and often multiple tears streaming down the cheeks. It's the visual equivalent of sobbing—not holding back, not composed, just full-on emotional release. The intensity is unmistakable and impossible to misread.
Use it when you're experiencing extreme emotions, whether sadness or joy. Someone might send it when they're absolutely devastated by news, heartbroken over a breakup, or laughing so hard they're crying. On social media, it's become a catch-all for emotional intensity—reacting to dramatic posts, expressing overwhelming feelings, or even joking about being emotionally wrecked by a TV show or meme.
What's fascinating is its versatility: the same face conveys both tragic sadness and hysterical laughter. Context and surrounding text determine which one you mean. "I just watched the ending of that show 😭" could be tears of devastation or tears from laughing too hard. This ambiguity has made it incredibly popular because emotional extremes—whether good or bad—look surprisingly similar on the human face.
One of the oldest and most-used emoji across all platforms, this one was approved in Unicode 0.6 in 2010. It's consistently ranked among the top 5 most-used emoji worldwide, likely because emotional extremes are universal human experiences we all need to express.
Common Uses
- • Laughing so hard you're crying
- • Expressing extreme sadness or heartbreak
- • Reacting dramatically to emotional content
- • Emphasizing just how much you care about something
Popular Combos
Did You Know?
This emoji is so universally recognized and used that it's become a meme in itself—posting it alone can mean anything from 'I'm dying laughing' to 'this is the saddest thing ever,' making it one of the most context-dependent emoji in existence.
Keywords
Appears in Topics
Related Emoji
Technical Reference
Platform Shortcodes
:sob: :sob: :sob: Developer Codes
| HTML (decimal) | 😭 |
| HTML (hex) | 😭 |
| CSS | \1F62D |
| JavaScript | \uD83D\uDE2D |
| Python | \U0001F62D |
| Java | \uD83D\uDE2D |
| Perl | \x{1F62D} |
| PHP / Ruby | \x{1F62D} |
| Punycode | xn--2r71 |
| URL Encoded | %F0%9F%98%AD |
| UTF-8 Bytes | 0xF0 0x9F 0x98 0xAD |
😭 in 28 languages
Names sourced from Unicode CLDR and emojibase.
| Language | Name |
|---|---|
| Bengali | জোরে ক্রন্দনরত মুখ |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 放声大哭 |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 哭 |
| Danish | stortudende ansigt |
| Dutch | hard huilend gezicht |
| English | loudly crying face |
| English (UK) | loudly crying face |
| Estonian | valjusti nuttev nägu |
| Finnish | ääneen itkevä |
| French | visage qui pleure à chaudes larmes |
| German | heulendes Gesicht |
| Hindi | ज़ोर–ज़ोर से रोता चेहरा |
| Hungarian | zokogó arc |
| Italian | faccina disperata |
| Japanese | 大泣き |
| Korean | 엉엉 우는 얼굴 |
| Lithuanian | garsiai raudantis veidas |
| Malay | muka meraung |
| Norwegian | strigråter |
| Polish | głośno płacząca twarz |
| Portuguese | rosto chorando aos berros |
| Russian | слезы рекой |
| Spanish | cara llorando fuerte |
| Spanish (Mexico) | cara llorando fuerte |
| Swedish | storgråtande ansikte |
| Thai | ร้องไห้โฮ |
| Ukrainian | обличчя, що гучно ридає |
| Vietnamese | mặt khóc to |