The 🍆 emoji primarily refers to the penis : this is its primary use on the social networks and in the sexting, because of its evocative shape. It nevertheless retains its original meaning of vegetable in the kitchen, and even gives a nod to the world of video games. It is one of the double-meaning emojis in the world.

You can also find out more by clicking here are the 10 emojis that 9 out of 10 people misunderstand. And you, do you really know them?
To test your knowledge of emojis like 🍆, you can take the quiz here :
The Meanings of the Eggplant Emoji 🍆
The history of this emoji begins with its inclusion in the standard Unicode. On paper, it's just a vegetable. In internet culture, it very often refers to the penis, especially since the mid-2010s, when the sexting went viral on social media.
→ The 🍆 emoji and cooking
In a culinary context, the emoji is, of course, still a vegetable in its own right. You can use it to refer to dishes like the eggplant caviar in Provence, the moussaka popular in Greece and Turkey, or ratatouille.
It also works well with meat-stuffed eggplant, eggplant confit, or a vegetable stew. Pair it with other dishes food emojis to highlight the ingredients in a recipe.
→ The 🍆 emoji and its sexual connotation
Its shape resembles a penis, making it one of the most popular emojis in the sexting. It is most commonly encountered in sexual exchanges between adults, where it refers to the’erection, masturbation, penis size, or how to have sex.
His most frequent companions in this genre are the peach 🍑 and the game's drops 💦. This usage has become so commonplace that Instagram limited the search for hashtags related to eggplant starting at 2015, the year in which the’American Dialect Society crowned him Most Memorable Emoji of the year.
Introducing the eggplant emoji
In the classification Unicode, the 🍆 emoji belongs to the category «Food & Drink», subcategory «vegetable food». It depicts a long dark purple eggplant, technically just another vegetable.
But just like the banana emoji or the cucumber emoji, its shape makes all the difference. How it appears varies by platform: on iPhone (Apple) as well as on Android, the silhouette remains recognizable, but the colors and style differ slightly.
It is found mainly on the dating applications, on social media among adults and in private messages. Sharing this emoji in the wrong context might surprise the person you're talking to.
Today, it is seen more as a symbol of the penis as well as the vegetable it officially represents. In the wake of its success, Instagram then Facebook have blocked certain related hashtags to limit explicit content.
According to authoritative sources such as Emojipedia, which lists its appearances on various platforms; it can also be found under the following names:
- Purple Eggplant Emoji
- Penis emoji
- Phallus emoji
Combinations of the eggplant emoji 🍆 with other emojis
The eggplant emoji represents both the vegetable and the male, which allows it to take on a completely different meaning depending on the emojis that accompany it. Here are some concrete examples, ranging from cooking to sexting.
| Uses | Meanings | Emoji combinations with 🍆 |
| Receipts | Eggplant caviar | 🍆🥣 |
| Ratatouille | 🍆🌶🍅 | |
| Boiled vegetables | 🍅🍆🥦🥘 | |
| Vegetable Smoothie | 🍆🥒🧂🥬 | |
| Sexual connotations | I'm almost there… | 🍆💦 |
| The cat is afraid of the eggplant | 🐈🍆 | |
| Oral sex | 🍆💦👄 | |
| Sexual innuendo | 🍆😜 | |
| I need an eggplant | 🍆➡️😋 | |
| Is that okay? | 🍆💦👅 | |
| Having sex in the shower | 🛁🍑🍆🚿 | |
| Video games | Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, featuring the characters Miss Aubergine and Soldier Aubergine | 👸🍅🥗👑🍆 |
| Kid Icarus, where the Eggplant Wizard transforms the hero and is one of the most feared enemies | 🧙🍆 |
Eggplant even makes an appearance in the video games. the Aubergine Wizard of Kid Icarus, released on NES in 1986, literally turns your character into a vegetable: a cult-classic nod that old-school players haven't forgotten.
How should you respond when someone sends you the eggplant emoji?
It all depends on context and the person. If you're flirting and you like the way things are going, you can respond with the peach 🍑, them drops 💦 where the naughty smiley 😏 to stay on the same two-way street.
If the message makes you uncomfortable, it’s best to cut it short or respond literally—for example, with an actual recipe. When you send or receive this emoji on Instagram, Snapchat Where X, keep in mind that this use of emojis remains very clear to a wide audience around the world.
To enrich your conversations, check out the meaning of the 😊 emoji or that of the smiley 🤯.






