ship
Unicode: 1F6A2
Description
A dark blue or black ship, specifically a passenger ship or a ferry boat, with a white superstructure and usually a red or white smokestack. It is depicted moving on calm blue water, indicating travel or transportation by sea.
Group:
Travel & Places > transport-water
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically expresses travel, journey, vacation, maritime transport, leisure at sea, or sometimes the concept of 'shipping' (related to fictional character pairings) in online communities.
Backstory
This emoji was introduced in Unicode 6.0 (2010). It represents a common form of naval transport and has been part of the standard emoji set since its early days, symbolizing sea travel and journeys.
Usage Examples
- Planning a vacation: 'Going on a cruise next month! 🚢'
- Referring to travel: 'Took the ferry across the bay 🚢 today.'
- Talking about hobbies: 'Love watching ships sail by 🚢.'
- Figurative (online): 'I totally ship them! They're perfect together! 🚢'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Commonly used for cruise vacations, ferry travel, or general sea adventures. Less common for metaphorical 'shipping' than for actual boats.
East Asian culture:
Similar literal uses but also sometimes used in online contexts to refer to 'shipping' fictional characters (a play on the word 'relationship') due to the sound similarity of 'ship'.