radioactive
Unicode: 2622 FE0F
Description
A skull and crossbones symbol, often associated with danger, poison, or death. The FE0F is a variation selector that ensures it is displayed as an emoji.
Group:
Symbols > warning
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Conveys danger, warning, toxicity, or a sense of peril. Can also be used playfully to indicate something 'deadly good' or 'killer'.
Backstory
The skull and crossbones symbol has a long history as a warning sign for poison and danger, dating back centuries. It's also famously associated with pirates. The emoji was introduced in Unicode 1.1 (1993) but later updated with the FE0F (Emoji variation selector) in Unicode 6.0 (2010), specifically to render it as a colorful emoji rather than a black and white text symbol in many contexts.
Usage Examples
- Warning about something dangerous: 'Don't go near that old building ☠️'
- Labeling something as toxic: 'This cleaner is ☠️ poisonous.'
- Expressing extreme displeasure or 'death' to something: 'My phone battery just died ☠️'
- Humorous exaggeration of something 'killer' or 'deadly good': 'That concert was absolutely ☠️ sick!'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Strongly associated with pirates, poison, hazardous materials, and death. Widely recognized as a universal warning symbol.
East Asian culture:
Similar associations with danger and death, but may also be used in a more lighthearted context for 'deadly' good things (e.g., 'killer' design or music).
General:
Used globally as a warning sign for hazardous substances or to represent pirates.