What does ☠️ Skull and Crossbones mean?
A skull over two crossed bones, the long-standing symbol for poison, danger and pirates. It works for warnings about something toxic or deadly, pirate themes and Halloween decorations. Like 💀, it can also mean “dead” from laughter or exhaustion, though it is less common in that role. Overall it feels more ominous and official than the plain skull.
☠️ Skull and Crossbones is an emoji from the Smileys & Emotion category (angry & negative faces), added in Emoji 1.0 in 2015. People use it in messages about bone, dead, death, face and monster.
Example messages
☠️ Skull and Crossbones on Apple, Google, Microsoft & more
The code is the same everywhere, but every company draws its own artwork. This is how Skull and Crossbones looks on each platform.
More angry & negative faces emojis
See all 8 →Collections with ☠️
Skull and Crossbones emoji: questions & answers
How do I copy and paste the Skull and Crossbones emoji?
Press the Copy button at the top of this page and ☠️ is copied to your clipboard. Then paste it anywhere with Ctrl+V, Cmd+V or a long press on your phone. In Slack, Discord and GitHub you can also type the shortcode :skull_and_crossbones:.
When was the Skull and Crossbones emoji added?
☠️ Skull and Crossbones was added in Emoji 1.0, released in 2015. It is supported on all current versions of iOS, Android, Windows and macOS.
Why does ☠️ look different on my phone?
Every platform draws its own artwork for Skull and Crossbones. The underlying code (U+2620 U+FE0F) is the same everywhere, so the person you send it to always gets the same emoji, just in their device’s style. Compare the designs in the platform section above.