A single silver paperclip bent into its familiar oval loop, standing for a file attached to an email or a message. It's become near-universal shorthand for "there's an attachment here," and it gets borrowed loosely too for anything held together or tacked on, a side note clipped to the main point.
What 📎 means
A metal string looped rectangularly forming a paperclip. The 📎 Paperclip emoji pins and keeps papers together, hence, it could signify a sense of togetherness, belonging, and sticking together. It acts as the essential stitch in time.
How and when to use it
- Today, a paperclip is just another stationery. But, historically, this little guy had deep significance. And, if you're using this significance in any context, you may use 📎. Like, "Rebel. React. Resist 📎'.
- From a much "present" perspective, use 📎 while talking about togetherness in a post caption or text message. Not any togetherness, but the kind that holds things together without diminishing each of their value.
- Examples for the previous point: "If you want to keep someone, you cannot change them. You can only love them 📎" or "The best kind of relationships are the ones that don't change you, but change you for the better 📎".
- 📎 can also be used to signify the little things. Because although they're small, they're quite significant. For instance, "Sometimes, the things that mean the most are the things we take for granted 📎".
Other Names
- 📎 Clippy
- 📎 Gem Clip
- 📎 Paper Fastener
- 📎 Paper Holder
- 📎 Paper Clip
The lowdown
- Category
- Objects › office
- Codepoints
U+1F4CE- Emoji version
- Emoji 0.6
- Shortcodes
:paperclip:- Keywords
- paperclip
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 — 📎 Paperclip or 🐀 Rat?
Runs with a crowd
📎 keeps company in school emojis — tap-to-copy sets for when one emoji isn't enough.