A solid black circle, the darkest point in the lunar cycle, when the moon's lit side faces away from Earth entirely. Moon-phase trackers and astrology accounts use it literally, and it doubles as shorthand for a fresh start or a clean slate — the night the cycle resets before waxing back toward full again.
What 🌑 means
A dark moon with a dark bluish gradience across the design of the moon. There are also a couple of craters, all dark blue or black in color. On some platforms, this emoji is shown with polka dots.
The 🌑 New Moon emoji represents the first phase of the eight consecutive phases of the moon. This emoji symbolises various things in the background of various beliefs and understandings. While it suggests darkness and a moonless sky, it could also suggest new beginnings.
How and when to use it
- During the new moon, we essentially see the dark side of the moon. Since there are numerous perceived causalities between the moon and humans, you can use 🌑 in post/repost captions that are about literal or metaphorical 'dark sides' and 'shadows' too.
- A new moon is the beginning of the lunar cycle, and so, it could also represent new beginnings at large. So, if your post caption or quote aligns with similar and related themes, you can use 🌑. For example, "It's a new dawn. A new moon. A new life for me. And I'm feeeeeeling gooood 🌑" (bonus if you sang it along!).
- New moons can have astronomical implications as well. If you're sharing anything pertaining to the new moon and the signs on your social media handle, you can use 🌑 in the caption.
- There are some new moon festivals in different countries and cultures. If you are a part of an identity that has these festive celebrations, then feel free to bring in the 🌑 emoji into those contexts too!
Other Names
- 🌑 Dark Side of the Moon
- 🌑 Dark Moon
- 🌑 The Unlit Side of the Moon
- 🌑 First Phase of the Moon
- 🌑 First Phase of the Lunar Cycle
- 🌑 Shadow Moon
- 🌑 Solar Eclipse
- 🌑 New Moon Symbol
🌑 in real conversations
Is the new moon actually black in real life, or is that just the emoji?
Just the emoji, kind of — a real new moon isn't a black disc so much as invisible entirely, since the lit side is facing away from Earth and toward the sun. 🌑 draws it as a solid circle purely so the eight-phase set has something to show for that night; astronomically, there's nothing to actually see up there.
Why do astrology and manifestation accounts post 🌑 so often?
New moon nights are treated as the reset point of the monthly cycle in that world — the night people write intentions, start habits, or plan a fresh chapter, the same energy as New Year's Eve but recurring every month. 🌑 shows up captioning that ritual specifically, more often than it shows up describing the actual night sky.
What comes right after 🌑 in the moon-phase set?
🌒, the waxing crescent — a thin sliver appearing on the right edge about a day or two later as the moon starts catching light again. From there it's a straight eight-emoji march through the growing and shrinking phases and back to 🌑 roughly 29 days later.
The lowdown
- Category
- Travel & Places › sky & weather
- Codepoints
U+1F311- Emoji version
- Emoji 0.6
- Shortcodes
:new_moon:- Keywords
- dark, moon, new, space
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 — 🌑 New Moon or 🧮 Abacus?
Runs with a crowd
🌑 keeps company in black emojis and moon emojis and space emojis — tap-to-copy sets for when one emoji isn't enough.