What Does 🙏 Mean?
Folded Hands is fascinatingly ambiguous: it represents prayer in religious contexts, a grateful thank-you, a pleading "please", and even a Japanese bow of respect. Some people read it as a high five. Its versatility makes it one of the most used emojis globally, though it can be misread across cultures.
Cultural context: In Japan it's a bow (おねがい/ありがとう). In South Asian cultures it's Namaste. In Western digital culture it's primarily "please" or "thank you". Christians use it for prayer. The high-five misreading is a running internet joke.
When to Use 🙏
✓ Good for
- Expressing gratitude
- Making a heartfelt request
- Showing hope or wishing for something
- Religious or spiritual contexts
✗ Avoid when
- When the meaning might be ambiguous — clarify with text if needed
Example Usage
How 🙏 Looks on Different Platforms
Hands pressed together, pointing upward. Skin tone modifiers available. Apple renders two separate hands more clearly; some platforms look more merged.
* Emoji appearance varies by platform and OS version. Shown above: how the emoji character renders in your browser per platform.
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Related to 🙏 Folded Hands
About the Folded Hands Emoji
The Folded Hands emoji (🙏) is one of the most recognised symbols in digital communication. Folded Hands is fascinatingly ambiguous: it represents prayer in religious contexts, a grateful thank-you, a pleading "please", and even a Japanese bow of respect. Some people read it as a high five. Its versatility makes it one of the most used emojis globally, though it can be misread across cultures.
First introduced in Unicode 6.0 (2010), it belongs to the Smileys & Emotion category
of the Unicode Emoji standard. Its Unicode codepoint is U+1F64F
and its Slack/Discord shortcode is :pray:.
Whether you want to know what 🙏 means in a text, how it appears on iPhone vs Android, or when you should (and shouldn't) use it — this guide covers everything. Use the copy button above to instantly copy the Folded Hands emoji to your clipboard.