Double exclamation mark ‼️

How to read it

‼️ is U+203C DOUBLE EXCLAMATION MARK, a punctuation character older than emoji. Unicode’s data dates it to Unicode 1.1, which Emojipedia places in 1993, and Unicode’s chart treats it as the equivalent of two exclamation marks (U+0021) typed side by side. It became an emoji through the Japanese phone carriers: Emojipedia says DoCoMo added it to its emoji keyboard in 1999, and Unicode’s mapping file lists it under DoCoMo and KDDI. Unicode’s emoji data labels it E0.6, the label Unicode’s emoji standard gives the emoji added in Unicode 6.0 in 2010, which include those from the Japanese carriers’ sets. Emojipedia describes the emoji as two large red exclamation marks side by side, and notes that Google’s design used to be blue and Samsung’s black. Unicode’s keywords are !, !!, bangbang, double, exclamation, mark and punctuation.

Also searched as: !!, ‼, ‼️, double exclamation emoji, double exclamation mark emoji, double exclamation mark emoji meaning, two exclamation marks, what does the double exclamation mark emoji mean.

Emoji or plain text

The same character can appear either way. Unicode’s variation-sequence data lists a text style and an emoji style for it, and Unicode’s emoji standard defines the two invisible selectors that ask for them: U+FE0E for a text presentation and U+FE0F for an emoji presentation. Unicode’s emoji test data calls ‼️ with the emoji selector fully qualified, and ‼ on its own unqualified.

How often it is used

Unicode’s 2019 ranking of emoji by how often they are used put ‼️ in a higher band than ❗ red exclamation mark, the single mark.

Look-alikes

⁉️ exclamation question mark, U+2049, is the emoji form of “!?”; its keywords include interrobang. The interrobang ‽ itself is a different character, a question mark and an exclamation mark overlaid. ❗ red exclamation mark is a single mark.