Built as a black variant of the standard cat, this emoji leans into the old superstition that a black cat crossing your path brings bad luck. In parts of the UK and Japan, though, the same animal is considered lucky instead. It's a Halloween and witchy-aesthetic staple, and plenty of owners just use it to represent their actual black cat.
What 🐈⬛ means
A cat that has a coat of fur which is completely black in color from head to tail, facing left, displaying its whole body in all its all-black, furry majesty.
Although the difference is only in pigmentation, a few cultures hold a superstition that the appearance of a black cat is bad luck, and this emoji often represents that. It also signifies the suave beauty of an all black kitty, and also its (very real) innocence.
Different platforms vary in their depictions of this 🐈⬛ emoji in terms of design.
How and when to use it
- 🐈⬛ represents not only black cats, but all cats, and can be used to depict any of them.
- A stint of bad luck can be represented with the 🐈⬛ emoji.
- 🐈⬛ can be used to depict an impressive degree of style quotient.
- Witchcraft, goth culture, occultism and other practices known for being "dark" can be represented with 🐈⬛.
- The harmless innocence of a cat can be depicted through this 🐈⬛ emoji.
Other Names
- 🐈⬛ Black Kitty
- 🐈⬛ Black Cat Body
- 🐈⬛ Kitty Cat
- 🐈⬛ Dark Cat
- 🐈⬛ Witch Cat
- 🐈⬛ Bad Luck
- 🐈⬛ Meow
- 🐈⬛ Purr
🐈⬛ in real conversations
What does 🐈⬛ mean in texting?
Often just an actual black cat — someone's real pet, shared with pride like any other pet photo. It's also shorthand for a witchy, moody, or gothic aesthetic without needing extra words.
Is 🐈⬛ actually bad luck?
Only by old Western superstition — the idea that one crossing your path is an omen. In parts of the UK and Japan the same animal is considered lucky instead, so the "bad luck" reading isn't universal at all.
What does 🐈⬛ mean around Halloween?
A seasonal staple — costumes, decorations, spooky-season captions, leaning fully into the superstition for fun rather than genuine dread. It shows up alongside 🎃 and 🕸️ as one of the go-to October emoji.
The lowdown
- Category
- Animals & Nature › animal-mammal
- Codepoints
U+1F408 U+200D U+2B1B- Emoji version
- Emoji 13.0
- Shortcodes
:black_cat:Slack · Discord- Keywords
- animal, black, cat, feline, halloween, meow, unlucky
- How it's built
- Several emojis fused by an invisible joiner — a ZWJ sequence.
How it looks across platforms
Seeing a blank box instead of the emoji somewhere? Here's why that happens. Curious why the designs above don't match to begin with? Here's why that happens too.
⚡ Quick round
Which joined the keyboard first — 🐈⬛ Black Cat or 🙋♂️ Man Raising Hand?
Runs with a crowd
🐈⬛ keeps company in black emojis and skull emojis — tap-to-copy sets for when one emoji isn't enough.