Baby Chick

A newly hatched chick: small, fluffy, yellow and adorable.

Most of the time it is literal or affectionate. It stands for a real chick in messages about hens, farms and pets, and for "aww, tiny and cute" in everything else: a baby, a kitten, a small friend, a new puppy. In Europe and the Americas it belongs to Easter and spring alongside eggs, bunnies and flowers, because a chick breaking out of its egg is an old symbol of new life. Baby announcements and birthday wishes for little ones lean on it for the same reason.

In Japanese and Korean the chick has a second, everyday meaning: a beginner. Japanese hiyokko (ひよっこ, "little chick") is the normal word for a greenhorn, and Korean puts byeongari (병아리, "chick") in front of a job title to mean a rookie, as in "chick reporter" or "chick teacher". So 🐤 next to "first day at work" is a self-deprecating "I'm new here". English has the same idea in "fledgling", but English speakers rarely use the emoji that way.

The three chick emoji differ only by pose. 🐣 is still in its shell, 🐤 is seen from the side, and 🐥 faces you. Keyboards show them in a row, and most people pick whichever looks cutest on their phone.

What does it mean when someone sends you 🐤?

Warmth, cuteness or "you're adorable", almost never anything deeper.

On its own it is a soft, friendly reaction: a chick sent back to your photo means "so cute". With a heart it is affection, from a friend, a parent or a partner alike, and it does not announce romance by itself. Next to "happy Easter" or spring blossoms it is purely seasonal. If an English speaker types it after the word "chick" meaning a woman, it is a pun, and the words around it tell you whether it is a joke or a slight.