Pleading face 🥺

How to read it

🥺 is U+1F97A, named FACE WITH PLEADING EYES in the Unicode Standard and pleading face in Unicode’s emoji lists. It was approved in Unicode 11.0 in 2018 and belongs to Emoji 11.0. It reached Unicode through the Emoji Subcommittee’s 2017 faces proposal (L2/17-244), written with Tayfun Karadeniz of EmojiXpress, where it appears as FACE WITH GLISTENING EYES with the single keyword “begging”; among the proposals that document prioritised was a “Please Emoji” from Federico Armellini. Dictionary.com says it is the face one makes when pleading, trying to win compassion or sympathy, with the puppy-dog eyes of cute animals or young children begging for something, and that besides pleading it conveys sadness, guilt and cuteness. Its uses include asking for forgiveness or a favour, remorse, affection, hurt and fear. Emojipedia adds adoration and feeling touched by a loving gesture. Unicode’s keywords run from begging, mercy and please to pretty, puppy and sad.

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How it became one of the most used emoji

Emojipedia’s Jeremy Burge reported in April 2020 that one tweet in every hundred contained 🥺, making it the third most used emoji on Twitter: a sharp rise, he wrote, for a face approved only in early 2018 and on most phones only from late 2018. Dictionary.com, citing Emojipedia, puts it behind 😂 and 😭 that year. Burge put its appeal down to ambiguity: “Is it shy? Sad? Sorry? Flirty? All of the above.” Emojipedia also records it as the emoji most often found in tweets with hearts, and, beside 👉👈 pointing hands, as a bashful or shy pose, particularly on TikTok.

How platforms draw it

Dictionary.com notes that the eyes are black on most platforms, but X (formerly Twitter) gives them orange and brown. Emojipedia notes that Huawei’s design adds a pair of 🙏 folded hands.

Look-alikes

🥹 Face holding back tears, from 2021, has the same large glossy eyes, with tears welling at the lower lids and a small smile in place of the frown. Emojipedia says the two can be used in some similar contexts.