Black flag

Often just “flagged”: look at this, don’t forget this.

Like a sticky tab on a page, the black flag symbol marks what matters: an important line in notes, a task to follow up, a reported post, a place on a list or route. Some text versions of Minesweeper use it for a square where you suspect a mine. Because it is a text character, it is normally drawn in the colour of the surrounding text instead of looking like a colourful emoji.

Can a black flag carry a darker meaning?

Yes, real black flags have loaded histories, but ⚑ borrows them from context.

Pirate crews of the late 1600s and early 1700s flew black flags to frighten ships into surrendering. Anarchists adopted the black flag in the 1880s; Louise Michel carried one at a Paris demonstration of unemployed workers in 1883. Black banners also go back to the Abbasid revolution of 750 and are used by modern jihadist groups such as ISIS. Black flags can mean mourning too, as at the Shia shrines of Karbala during the month of Muharram. In Formula 1, a black flag shown with a car’s number disqualifies that driver and calls them into the pits. A bare ⚑ says none of this by itself.