What Does 🥺 Mean?
Pleading Face quickly became a cultural phenomenon after its 2018 introduction, thanks to its giant upward-tilted eyes that evoke the universal "puppy eyes" look. It's used to beg for something, express genuine sadness, react to something unbearably cute, or soften a request with maximum emotional manipulation.
Cultural context: Extremely popular in K-pop and anime fandoms for expressing cuteness. Also heavily used in meme culture — the "🥺 can we hold hands" format became iconic. Used universally by all age groups online.
When to Use 🥺
✓ Good for
- Begging or pleading for something
- Expressing deep sadness
- Reacting to something adorably cute
- Adding emotional weight to a request
✗ Avoid when
- Professional requests — it reads as manipulative
- Serious negotiations
Example Usage
How 🥺 Looks on Different Platforms
All platforms show the characteristic wide upturned eyes and small mouth. Samsung's version has particularly large, shiny eyes; Apple's is more muted.
* 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 🥺 Pleading Face
About the Pleading Face Emoji
The Pleading Face emoji (🥺) is one of the most recognised symbols in digital communication. Pleading Face quickly became a cultural phenomenon after its 2018 introduction, thanks to its giant upward-tilted eyes that evoke the universal "puppy eyes" look. It's used to beg for something, express genuine sadness, react to something unbearably cute, or soften a request with maximum emotional manipulation.
First introduced in Unicode 11.0 (2018), it belongs to the Smileys & Emotion category
of the Unicode Emoji standard. Its Unicode codepoint is U+1F97A
and its Slack/Discord shortcode is :pleading_face:.
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 Pleading Face emoji to your clipboard.