🌒

Waxing Crescent Moon Emoji 🌒

A sliver of light along the right edge of the moon, with most of the disc still in shadow, the second phase of the lunar cycle, right after new moon. Moon-phase trackers and astrology posts use it most literally, and it picks up a small metaphorical read too: something just starting to grow, a plan barely underway.

What 🌒 means

A dark moon, with dark craters and a thin golden crescent on the right side. Sometimes, this crescent is defined, whereas sometimes, it bleeds onto the dark side.

The 🌒 Waxing Crescent Moon emoji refers to the second phase in the lunar cycle. This emoji essentially shows a sliver of the illuminated side of the moon, which can signify 'growth' of the moon, literally and that of a person or anything else, metaphorically.

How and when to use it

Since a waxing crescent moon signifies growth, growing newness and an intentional step into the new beginning of the new moon or a new phase in one's life too, you can use 🌒 in the captions of social media stories or posts that resonate with these themes.
If you're sharing a picture of a painting, a photo, anything that has a waxing crescent moon in it (remember, the crescent falls on the right), you can use 🌒 in those contextual captions too.
🌒 can also be used to suggest a thin fraction of light. And with light, comes hope in the background of darkness. Baring this use case in mind, tag this emoji into such frameworks. For instance, "Let the light in. It doesn't matter if it's the slightest 🌒".
You can also use 🌒 in the captions or text messages while sharing pictures and/or videos of waxing crescent moon jewelry.

Other Names

🌒 Waxing Crescent Moon Symbol
🌒 Crescent Moon
🌒 Slightly Lit Moon
🌒 Second Phase of the Lunar Cycle
🌒 Waxing Moon
🌒 Phases of the Moon
🌒 Lunar Cycle
🌒 Moon

🌒 in real conversations

When would I actually see 🌒 for real, not just in an emoji chart?

Low in the western sky just after sunset, a day or two after new moon — a thin curved sliver that sets not long after the sun does. It's one of the more genuinely spottable phases if you know where to look, unlike the new moon, which isn't visible at all.

Is 🌒 waxing or waning, and how can I remember which?

Waxing — the sliver is growing, not shrinking. One trick: 🌒's light sits on the right, and that's the side it'll keep spreading from night after night until the disc is fully lit. Its mirror image, 🌘, lights up on the left instead and is shrinking toward new moon.

Does 🌒 carry any meaning beyond the literal moon phase?

Not much of one — it's mostly used literally, by moon-phase trackers, astrology accounts and genuine stargazing posts marking exactly where the cycle stands. Compare that to 🌑 or 🌕, which have picked up real figurative baggage around fresh starts and culmination; the in-between phases mostly stay descriptive.

The lowdown

Category: Travel & Places › sky & weather
Codepoints: U+1F312
Emoji version: Emoji 1.0
Shortcodes: :waxing_crescent_moon:
Keywords: crescent, dreams, moon, space, waxing

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.