This grey, big-eared, trunk-raised animal is unmistakable, and the elephant emoji backs two idioms it was basically built for. An elephant 'never forgets,' and the 'elephant in the room' is the one nobody wants to bring up.
What 🐘 means
A large, whole, grey body of an elephant standing on all fours, facing left, displaying its signature large ears and long trunk coming out of its big head. Also visible are its white, curved tusks shooting from the side of its mouth and, on the other end, its long tail that's hairy at the end.
There's no animal on land as large as the elephant and the 🐘 Elephant emoji most often signifies that kind of physical triumph over others. It could also suggest the wisdom and majesty that elephants are known for, as well as its other characteristics.
Different platforms vary in their depiction of this emoji in terms of design. Some even show just the face of the elephant.
How and when to use it
- Tall or big people can be referred to using the 🐘 emoji.
- Strength and might are often encapsulated in the 🐘 emoji.
- The elephant is one of the most respected of all animals and this reverence can be represented through 🐘.
- A person with a big appetite can be compared to an elephant through 🐘.
- 🐘 can also represent big obstacles on one's path.
- When the conversation literally involves an elephant, there's no better emoji to depict it than 🐘.
Other Names
- 🐘 Tusker
- 🐘 Jumbo
- 🐘 Giant
- 🐘 Mastodon
- 🐘 Elephantine
- 🐘 Dumbo
- 🐘 Big Ears
- 🐘 Massive
- 🐘 Pachyderm
🐘 in real conversations
What does 'the elephant in the room' mean?
An obvious problem everyone notices but nobody wants to bring up, usually because it's awkward, sensitive or likely to start a fight. The logic is simple, an actual elephant standing in a room would be impossible to miss, yet people still manage to talk around it. 🐘 gets used to point at exactly that kind of avoided topic.
Do elephants really 'never forget'?
Mostly true, though it's an exaggeration dressed up as fact. Elephants have genuinely remarkable long-term memory, recognizing family members' calls after a decade apart and avoiding places where they once faced danger, backed by a memory-processing brain region larger than most animals have. 🐘 gets sent as a joke whenever someone brings up an old grudge nobody's forgotten.
What's a 'white elephant' gift?
A deliberately useless or ridiculous present, swapped at holiday parties for laughs rather than practicality. The phrase traces back to Siam, where the king reportedly gifted rare white elephants to people who'd fallen out of favor, since caring for one drained their finances. 🐘 shows up on invites to that exact kind of gift exchange every December.
The lowdown
- Category
- Animals & Nature › animal-mammal
- Codepoints
U+1F418- Emoji version
- Emoji 0.6
- Shortcodes
:elephant:- Keywords
- animal, elephant
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 — 🐘 Elephant or ❤️🩹 Mending Heart?
Runs with a crowd
🐘 keeps company in animal emojis and ganesh chaturthi emojis — tap-to-copy sets for when one emoji isn't enough.