Kaomoji
Kaomoji (顔文字, literally “face characters”) are Japanese emoticons assembled from ordinary letters, punctuation and Unicode symbols. Unlike a Western emoticon, a kaomoji is read upright rather than sideways: the eyes sit either side of a mouth, as in (＾▽＾), so the whole face is legible without tilting your head.
Because a kaomoji is only text, it survives anywhere text does — usernames, commit messages, terminal output, game chat, subject lines, and platforms with no emoji font at all. Nothing on this page is an image: copying a kaomoji copies the characters themselves.
Frequently asked questions
What is a kaomoji?
A kaomoji is a Japanese-style emoticon built from text characters and read upright, without tilting your head. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ and (＾▽＾) are all kaomoji.
How are kaomoji different from emoji?
An emoji is a single Unicode character that every platform draws with its own artwork, so it looks different on Apple and on Google. A kaomoji is a sequence of ordinary characters, so it reads the same everywhere and needs no emoji font.
How do I type a kaomoji?
Typing one by hand is slow — most run to five or twenty characters, and many use Japanese or Cyrillic letters your keyboard has no key for. Copying is faster: select the glyph on this page and it lands on your clipboard ready to paste.
Do kaomoji work everywhere?
Almost always. They are plain text, so they paste into Discord, Slack, X, WhatsApp, Instagram, terminals and code comments alike. A few use rarer Unicode symbols that a very old font may not carry; each detail page shows what your own device renders.