Rounded and grey, mouth often shown wide open, the hippopotamus emoji depicts one of Africa's most dangerous animals despite the goofy look. It's used for the animal itself and gets a nostalgic nod from anyone who grew up playing Hungry Hungry Hippos.
What 🦛 means
The full, greyish body of big, fat hippopotamus (hippo) standing on all fours, facing left, displaying its big head, the long lining of its mouth almost in a smile, and the overall roundness of its structure.
Suggested by the 🦛 Hippopotamus emoji is its massiveness, obesity, big appetite, and even danger and raw strength.
Different platforms vary in their depictions of this emoji. Some show the Hippopotamus with its huge, terrifying mouth wide open, whereas some even show only the head of the animal.
How and when to use it
- In friendly conversations, the 🦛 emoji can be used to represent someone' obesity. But beware to not insult or body-shame anyone with this emoji.
- A person's big appetite or gluttony can be represented through 🦛.
- Laziness can also be depicted through the 🦛 emoji.
- The free spirit of a Hippopotamus in the wild can also be denoted through 🦛 emoji.
- If the conversation literally involves a Hippopotamus, there's no better emoji than 🦛.
Other Names
- 🦛 Hippo
- 🦛 Hungry Hippo
- 🦛 Obese
- 🦛 Wild Animal
- 🦛 Gloria
- 🦛 Calf
- 🦛 Gluttony
- 🦛 Big Mouth
The lowdown
- Category
- Animals & Nature › animal-mammal
- Codepoints
U+1F99B- Emoji version
- Emoji 11.0
- Shortcodes
:hippopotamus:- Keywords
- animal, hippo, hippopotamus
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 — 🦛 Hippopotamus or ♥️ Heart Suit?