smiling cat with heart-eyes
Unicode: 1F63B
Description
A yellow cartoon-style cat face with a wide open mouth, often showing teeth and gums, and wide open eyes, sometimes with tears or a 'W' shaped mouth to indicate distress or strong emotion.
Group:
Smileys & Emotion > cat-face
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents a cat's distressed or surprised expression. Can be used to convey a variety of strong emotions such as shock, fear, pain, extreme sadness, or even exaggerated laughter or excitement.
Backstory
This emoji was introduced in Unicode 6.0 (2010) as one of several cat-faced emojis. It represents a common cartoon trope of a cat reacting with an open, 'gasping' mouth, making it versatile for expressing extreme or over-the-top reactions in digital communication.
Usage Examples
- Expressing surprise: 'You actually finished it? 🙀'
- Showing fear/shock: 'I saw a huge spider! 🙀'
- Reacting to pain (humorously): 'I just stubbed my toe so hard 🙀'
- Exaggerated reaction: 'That presentation was so wild! 🙀'
- Extreme excitement/laughter: 'I can't believe I won! 🙀 (less common than other uses)
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Often used to express surprise, fear, or a 'shocked' reaction, sometimes humorously. Less commonly used for intense sadness or physical pain compared to human-faced emojis.
East Asian culture:
Can be used more broadly for any strong, overwhelming emotion, from extreme joy to deep sorrow, often a comical overreaction.