A skull sitting above two crossed bones — the skull-and-crossbones is the universal warning sign for poison, danger, and death, straight off pirate flags and hazard labels. Unlike its cheerier cousin the plain skull, which gets used for 'I'm dead' laughter, this one keeps its literal, watch-out edge.
What ☠️ means
A greyish white cartoon of a human skull, with hollowed eyes, a tiny, hollow nose, and the upper half set of the teeth. This skull is featured with two crossbones; a pair of bones crossed like an 'X' under the skull.
The ☠️ Skull and Crossbones emoji symbolises death, misfortune, negativity, fear, angst and other grievous elements. This symbol has been a reference to death, gravestone carvings and danger for a long time now, and the emoji also denotes the same.
How and when to use it
- If you're trying to indicate danger in a conversation or a situation, use this emoji.
- This emoji can also be used to suggest that someone just dug their own grave, thanks to their stupidity.
- You can use this emoji to show a deadly sense of fear and angst too.
- If someone's being too annoying, send this emoji as a funny way of shutting them up (if they will).
- You can use this emoji in a Halloween context too.
- This emoji can be brought into conversations talking about horror stories and other such jazz.
Other Names
- ☠️ Danger
- ☠️ Dangerous
- ☠️ Dead
- ☠️ Death
- ☠️ Graveyard
- ☠️ Tombstone
- ☠️ Fear
- ☠️ Hazardous
- ☠️ Spooky
- ☠️ Halloween
- ☠️ Horror
☠️ in real conversations
What does ☠️ mean in texting?
Actual danger — poison, risk, something that could genuinely hurt someone. 'Don't drink that, ☠️' is a real warning, not a joke about dying laughing.
Is ☠️ the same as 💀?
No, and mixing them up changes the tone. 💀 means something's hilarious; ☠️ points at real danger, toxicity, or pirate and death imagery — closer to a hazard label than a laugh.
What does ☠️ mean from a girl?
Usually flagging something or someone as genuinely toxic — a bad ex, a sketchy situation, a red flag worth taking seriously. It's a warning label more than a punchline.
The lowdown
- Category
- Smileys & Emotion › face-negative
- Codepoints
U+2620 U+FE0F- Emoji version
- Emoji 1.0
- Shortcodes
:skull_and_crossbones:GitHub- Keywords
- bone, crossbones, dead, death, face, monster, skull
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 — ☠️ Skull and Crossbones or 🔠 Input Latin Uppercase?
Runs with a crowd
☠️ keeps company in skull emojis — tap-to-copy sets for when one emoji isn't enough.