Twitter Symbols and What They Mean

Popular Twitter Symbols

With only 140 characters to use when formatting a tweet a little creativity is needed.  This is where Twitter symbols, also known as emoticons, can come into play.  There’s no rulebook when it comes to using emoticons on Twitter, which are usually made up of common keyboard characters.

These twelve Twitter symbols are some of the most commonly used:

#1 Smiley Face

🙂 or 🙂 – I’m happy. I mean no offence.

Example: “Thank you :)”

#2 Wink

😉 or 😉 – I’m just kidding. Don’t take offence.

Example: “Late night, was it? ;)”

#3 Frown

:/ or :-/ – Oh dear. What’s that all about?

Example: “Looking forward to @sw_trains journey to London this morning :/”

#4 Mouth Agape

😮 – Signifies amazement.

Example: A politician with a conscience? 😮

#5 Worried

:S – The S represents wavy lips to animate worry.

Example: “This cake has cherries. That’s one of my five a day, right? :S”

#6 Like with Glasses

8) – Often signifies geekdom. Can replace pretty much any use of the colon for eyes.

Example: “Totally built Tetris using Google Sheets and scripts 8)”

#7 Sad Face

🙁 – Used to show sadness or upset.

Example: “Oh. We’re out of cake :(“

#8 Tired Face

-.- – Signifies disdain or tiredness.

Example: “630am start -.-“

#9 Angry Face

:@ – Can signify angriness, annoyance or grumpiness.

Example: “They ran out of cake? :@”

#10 Tongue Out

😛 – poked out tongue. Kind of, “smug mode”.

Example: “Yeah. Tax rebate. Win :P”

#11 Awesome

\m/ – rad! Middle two fingers curled back, little finger and thumb raised, palm facing toward the user. 80s throwback.

Example: “Got Paul Weller tickets! \m/”

#12 Action

*an action* – anything between asterisks usually means an action or could used for emphasis.

Example: “I really want cake with no calories *joins queue*”

Which Twitter symbols do you use?

Please share your own Twitter symbols and meanings in the comments.

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