Warning emoji ⚠️: the triangle and what it means
is the general warning sign: a black exclamation mark on a yellow triangle, the shape that road signs and safety labels have used for decades for caution, something ahead. In chat it marks anything the reader should slow down for: a spoiler, a rule change, a deadline, a message that is not a joke. As a Unicode character it is older than most emoji; U26A0 arrived in Unicode 4.0 in 2003 and only became an emoji in 2015, which is why it exists in two looks.
The two looks are the same character. with the emoji selector draws the yellow sign; with the text selector , or in a plain font, is a thin black outline. If you want the black and white warning symbol that people search for, copy from the text form here; in a document it follows your font colour like any other character. (caution sign, U2621) is the older typographic cousin, a zigzag inside a triangle, and the red triangles stand in for a warning shape where no sign fits.
The hazard signs next to it are specific: radioactive, biohazard, poison, high voltage, flammable, explosive. All of them are real label meanings, so on a fence means electricity and on a bottle means do not drink, but in messages they are mostly used for effect: for something toxic or dangerously hot, for a sick day or a messy room, for I'm dead.
Prohibited vs no entry : the no signs
is the universal no sign: a red circle with a diagonal bar, the ISO prohibition sign that gets drawn over whatever is forbidden. On its own it means not allowed, banned, stop doing that. is a different sign, a red disc with a white bar, which on roads means no entry and in chat means blocked, off limits, do not go there. Both arrived with the first big emoji batch: in Unicode 5.2 (2009) and in Unicode 6.0 (2010).
Unicode also has the bare prohibition shapes as text symbols. (prohibited sign, U1F6C7, Unicode 7.0) is without colour. and are circled slashes from the maths blocks that look the same at small sizes, and ⃠ (combining enclosing circle backslash, U20E0) is a mark that draws the red-circle-and-bar over the character before it, so 🚬⃠ builds a no-smoking sign from a cigarette; support varies by font, so check it where you paste it. and are the circled X versions.
The pictorial no signs each cross out one thing: no smoking, no littering, no bicycles, no pedestrians, no mobile phones, non-potable water (do not drink), children crossing (a school zone, not a prohibition) and no one under eighteen, the age-limit badge used online for anything NSFW or adults-only. Several have an allowed twin: put litter in its place, potable water, phone switched off, which is what asks you to do. is the Japanese character 禁, forbidden, on a button; it is what Japanese signs print where English ones say No.
Stop sign , construction and road signs
is the red octagon that says stop on American roads, red with white letters since 1954 after decades as a yellow sign; the emoji is newer than most here, Unicode 9.0 in 2016. People use it for stop right there, for the end of a thread and for stop scrolling, read this. is the striped roadwork barrier, the standard emoji for work in progress, under construction and road closed. are traffic lights, red light meaning wait.
Six text symbols from the Miscellaneous Symbols block are road-condition pictograms that came into Unicode 5.2 from a Japanese broadcast traffic-information set: crossing lanes for an accident, a disabled car, a skidding car for a slippery road, a circled crossing for a closed road, and for closed entrances. They are rarely drawn in colour fonts, but they paste as neat monochrome icons wherever a font has them.
Around the barrier stand the people and kit of a site: construction worker in a hard hat, the hi-vis safety vest (Unicode 12.0, 2019), the rescue worker's helmet with a white cross and the fire extinguisher (Unicode 11.0, 2018), the emoji for a fire-safety sign and for putting out an argument.
Alert emoji: siren, SOS, exclamation and red flags
is officially police car light, a rotating red beacon, and it is the loudest alert emoji there is: breaking news, attention everyone, a trade or drop that is live now. Three in a row is a convention of its own. spells SOS, the distress call, used for help me both seriously and about a bad hair day. is the triangular red flag; since a 2021 meme wave it means a dealbreaker or a sign of trouble in a person, and a row of them means run.
The exclamation marks grade urgency: red for important, grey for a quieter note, ‼️ for I mean it and ⁉️ for alarmed disbelief. (heavy exclamation mark ornament) is a decorative text form that stays in your font colour. the red circle marks a live stream, a recording or an alert dot in a status list.
Finally the ways to say no outright: the red cross mark for wrong or cancelled, the cross on a green square, often not applicable, a person making the arms-crossed no gesture, muted and notifications off, and the text crosses that pair with the ticks over on Check Mark Symbols.
How to type the warning symbol on a keyboard
In Word and most Windows apps, type 26A0 and press AltX to get ; 26D4 gives , 2622 and 2623 . Add the emoji selector by typing FE0F and AltX right after it if you want the coloured version. The emoji keyboards are faster: Win. on Windows and CtrlCmdSpace on a Mac open a search box; type warning, no entry or prohibited.
On a phone the whole set lives under the Symbols tab of the emoji keyboard, in the group that starts with on iPhone and in the Symbols section on Android. In HTML, ⚠ is and 🚫 is . Discord and Slack take :warning:, :no_entry_sign: (), :no_entry: (), :octagonal_sign: () and :rotating_light: ().
Symbols
62Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Warning and hazard signs
The yellow triangle and the specific dangers
What is not allowed, and its opposite
Each crossed-out sign above the allowed or switched-off version where one exists
How to use them
6 situationsClick to copyWarning & Prohibited Emoji combos
15Worth knowing
- The radiation trefoil was doodled in 1946 at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley; the first versions were magenta on blue, and the black-on-yellow look came later as a standard.
- The biohazard symbol was designed in 1966 by Charles Baldwin at Dow Chemical. It was tested on people specifically to be memorable but meaningless, so that no existing association would get in the way.
- In 2007 the IAEA and ISO introduced a supplementary ionizing-radiation warning for dangerous sources: the trefoil with radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running figure, because studies showed many people did not know what the plain trefoil meant.
- The American stop sign was yellow with black letters until 1954, when the US standard switched it to red with white letters once reflective red materials were reliable enough for night use.
- , , and were in Unicode years before they were emoji: since Unicode 1.1 in 1993 and since 4.0 in 2003, which is why they still have a plain black-and-white text form.
Questions people ask
8How do I copy and paste the warning emoji?
Tap on this page and it is copied; paste it with CtrlV or CmdV. The same works for and every other sign here.
What does the emoji mean?
Caution or warning: something ahead needs attention. In chat it introduces spoilers, rule changes, risks, deadlines and anything the writer wants taken seriously.
What is the difference between and ?
is the general prohibition sign, a red circle with a slash, meaning not allowed or banned. is the no-entry road sign, a red disc with a white bar, meaning blocked or do not enter.
Is there a black and white warning emoji?
Yes. is the same character shown as text instead of emoji. Copy the text form from this page, or type the character followed by UFE0E; in a document it then follows your font and colour.
How do I type the warning symbol in Word?
Type 26A0 and press AltX to get . For the coloured emoji, press Win. and search for warning. On a Mac, press CtrlCmdSpace and search for warning.
What does the emoji mean?
No one under eighteen: an age limit. Online it marks content that is adults only or NSFW.
What does the radioactive emoji mean?
is the radiation hazard sign, the trefoil found on anything emitting ionizing radiation. In messages it means toxic, dangerous or extremely hot, often as a joke.
What does the emoji mean?
It is a flashing police light, used for alerts: breaking news, attention everyone, something happening right now. Several in a row means urgent.
