☠️ Meaning: What does the skull emoji mean?

The emoji skull ☠️ symbolizes the dead, the danger or something like toxic. Depending on the context, this skull atop two crossed bones serves as a warning and evokes the universe pirate or warns against a malicious person. Its meaning therefore varies greatly depending on the context.

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 meaning and various uses of the emoji

Its official name is Skull and Crossbones, that is skull and crossbones. This universal symbol has been warning of serious danger for centuries, long before it existed as an emoji.

Visually, a human skull is based on two long bones arranged in a cross shape (of the femurs). It features two large dark circles under the eyes, a heart-shaped nose, and a row of white teeth. It is very often found on a pirate flag or related to the holiday of’Halloween.

In practice, you use ☠️ in several contexts:

• Warn of a danger : a toxic substance, a liquid, or a food item that is hazardous to health.
• Report a poison : This is the recognized symbol for deadly substances.
• Warn a loved one : against a malicious person, whether in friendship or in love.
• To describe a morbid situation : to convey the somber nature of an event.

Be careful not to confuse ☠️ with the emoji skull alone 💀. The latter is often used humorously to mean “I’m dying of laughter”: 💀 is the more appropriate choice in this case. The ☠️ emoji, on the other hand, retains a tone of danger orWarning. The symbol ⚠️ can also convey a warning, but without the connotation of death or toxicity associated with ☠️.

In fact, ☠️ can also be found in the video games where the online discussions to indicate that a character has died or that an area is dangerous. The meaning is always associated with death or danger.

Here are a few examples of how to use it in a message:

1. Please be careful with tobacco ☠️.
2. Don't drink too much alcohol—it's ☠️.
3. I don't trust this person ☠️—don't get too attached to them.

To copy the emoji skull, just select this character: ☠️. On a mobile device, press and hold it, then tap “Copy“. On a computer, highlight it and do Ctrl+C (Where Cmd+C (on a Mac), then paste it into any chat or message.

The Origin of the Skull Emoji

The character ☠ is included in the standard unicode since 1993, under the code U+2620 and the official name Skull and Crossbones. Originally, it was used primarily as a warning symbol for danger or toxic substances. It didn't become a true emoji until the addition of the display selector U+FE0F, approved as of Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

The code U+2620 FE0F is recognized in Android, Windows, Apple and Microsoft, as well as on OpenMoji, the open-source emoji library. In French, this emoji is sometimes referred to by its English name skull and crossbones, literally “dead skull bone head” in the Unicode keywords.

Here is the essential Unicode information for this emoji:

• Last name : Skull and Crossbones (skull and crossbones)
• Category: Emoticons and Emotions / Negative Face

Note: The bones located beneath the human skull are referred to in English as crossbones. This is’long cross-references, without anatomical specifications in the Unicode standard.

Features of the skull emoji

The emoji ☠️ is a basic character with no variant symbol. It has two display sequences depending on the platform used:

• the emoji style : a colorful skull with crossed bones, featured on almost all recent platforms.
• the text style : the same symbol in black and white, visible on some older systems.

You can use it with confidence on all major platforms: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Twitter Where OpenMoji, with consistent performance across the board.

Here are the technical specifications for the emoji skull and crossbones :

As you can see, the skull-and-crossbones emoji represents death ☠, but more importantly, it signifies the danger posed by the toxicity of a product or a person. So use it to warn your loved ones!

And for even more emojis and their meanings:

• 👻 Ghost emoji
• 💀 Skull Emoji
• 👹 Ogre emoji