The emoji 😷 represents a face wearing a medical mask. It means «I'm sick» Where «I'm protecting myself». You use it when you have a cold, the flu, or when you wear a surgical mask as a precaution.
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 :
What does the smiley face with mask 😷 mean?
L'face with mask emoji 😷 has the official name Face with Medical Mask in accordance with the standard Unicode. It shows a yellow face with their eyes closed or expressionless, their mouth covered by a surgical mask white.
Its main meaning is simple: «I'm sick» Where «I'm protecting myself». This is the’illness emoji The quintessential remedy—the one you take when you have a cold, the flu, or a fever. It also brings to mind the health coverage, such as that of a doctor or a dentist.
This emoji was used a lot during the COVID-19. In this context, its use was always linked to a medical reason: to report a contagious illness, a hospital visit, or a simple health precaution.
Nuances of Meaning Depending on Context
The meaning of this emoji varies slightly depending on the situation. Here are the most common uses:
- Health Precautions : You're either protecting yourself from illness or preventing others from getting sick.
- Medical Background : Are you talking about a doctor, a surgical procedure, or a hospital stay?.
- Pollution : Medical masks are also used to protect against polluted air.
- Widespread unease : You don't feel your best, but you're not really sick.
Emojis similar to 😷
Several similar emojis represent this illness. Don't confuse them:
- 🤒 : a face with a thermometer in its mouth, for a cold, a fever, or mild discomfort.
- 🤧 : the sneezing face, used for a cold, allergies, or a slump.
- 🤕 : a face with a bandage on the head—more likely due to an injury than an illness.
- 🤢 : a nauseated expression, used to convey disgust or physical revulsion.
- 🤮 : a face that's vomiting, evoking deep revulsion.
- 😵 : spiral-shaped eyes, to convey a sense of complete disorientation.
You can combine 😷 with the thermometer or the fever emoji to emphasize how you're feeling. A 😷🤒 clearly indicates that you're up to something serious.
Copy the 😷 emoji and technical codes
To to copy The face with a mask emoji—just select this character: 😷. It runs on Windows, Android, iOS and the web. The easiest way is to copy it from this page and paste it into your message.
Here's the information Unicode Useful for developers:
- Code point: U+1F637
- Version Unicode : introduced with Unicode 6.0 in 2010
- Encoding UTF-8 : F0 9F 98 B7
- HTML hexadecimal: 😷
- Ruby : \u{1F637}
- Perl : \x{1F637}
How it looks 😷 on different platforms
The mask doesn't look the same everywhere. The basic concept remains the same: a yellow face whose mouth is covered by a white surgical mask. The rendering varies slightly from one platform to another, particularly in terms of the eyes and color tones.
- Apple : a crisp, white mask with a neutral expression.
- Google (on Android) : slightly different rendering, understated mask.
- Microsoft (on Windows) : a composed expression, a neutral look.
- Twitter and Samsung : rendering that resembles a smiling face.
- OpenMoji : minimalist version, with simplified lines.

The name of the 😷 emoji in other languages
In French, it's called a «face with a medical mask.» Its meaning revolves entirely around the protection and health. Here is its name in a few other languages:
- English: Face with Medical Mask
- Croatian: Lice s medicinskom maskom
- Bulgarian: Лице с медицинска маска
- Czech: Obličej s lékařskou rouškou
How can you use the face with a mask emoji in your conversations?
The 😷 emoji is mainly used to say «I'm sick» Where «I'm protecting myself». You can slip it into a message when you have a cold, the flu, or are wearing a surgical mask. Many people also use it to talk about protection against pollution or contagious diseases.
Here are some concrete examples from a conversation:
- «I have the flu—I can barely breathe 😷.»
- «I don't feel well at all; I feel like I'm suffocating 😷.»
- «Plans canceled—I'm staying in bed all day 😷.»
- «Remember to put on your mask before coming in 😷.»
You can also combine this emoji with others to emphasize the emotion:
- «I have the flu—I can't breathe 😷😫!»
- «I feel really sick today 😷🤒.»
In practice, place the emoji in end of sentence to emphasize your point, or at the beginning when you want to grab someone's attention right away.
To continue with the same theme, check out what does 👀 mean?







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