What the white heart emoji and other white emoji mean
White heart is the quiet one among the coloured hearts. It stands for pure, gentle love, support without romance, and a clean or minimal look; it is the heart people send with condolences, to a friend who is grieving, or under a wedding photo. From a girl or a guy it usually means warm but calm affection rather than a declaration, which is why it works so well for friends, family and new acquaintances. It arrived in Unicode 12.0 in 2019, the same year as .
White flag means surrender or a truce. In a relationship chat it says I give up, let us stop arguing, and on its own it can be a joke about giving in to a craving or a nap. White circle and white square are plain shapes: a bullet point, a blank, a colour swatch, an empty slot in a progress bar or the light square of a chequerboard next to and . White flower is a Japanese teacher's stamp that says 大変よくできました, very well done, so it doubles as a gold star for a job well done.
Dove is peace, hope and the Holy Spirit, and the bird of weddings and funerals alike. Cloud and snowflake are the white of the sky; baby angel, halo and ghost are the white of the other world; swan, polar bear and sheep are the white of the living. Together they are the vocabulary of the white aesthetic: calm, clean, innocent, a little cold.
Why white means empty in Unicode names
In the names Unicode gives its characters, white does not mean the colour; it means hollow, an outline with nothing inside, and black means filled. That is why is called White Star and Black Star, why is the White Heart Suit, and why , the oldest smiley in the standard, is officially the White Smiling Face with as its black twin. Both came from the IBM PC character set of 1981, where they were characters 1 and 2.
Emoji inherited the names, and sometimes the colour too. White Circle, White Large Square, and White Square Button are genuinely white (or white on black) on every phone, while White Question Mark and White Exclamation Mark are the grey, quieter versions of and . White Flag and White Heart are white by design, not just by name. The one that confuses everybody is the pair : on most platforms the white square button is a dark tile with a white outline and the black square button is the opposite.
The same logic gives the text symbols at the bottom of this page: (white circles), (white squares), (white diamonds), (white triangles), (white stars), (white florette) and (white sun). They are plain Unicode characters, so they stay thin outlines in a username, a game nickname or a document where colour emoji would be blocked or look too loud.
White emoji combos and the white aesthetic
Most searches for white emoji are looking for a set that reads clean and soft: in some order. The trick is to stay in the family. Pair the white heart with white things (, , ) or with pale ones (, , ), and avoid dropping a red or yellow emoji in the middle. For a wedding or an all-white outfit, or say it; for a traditional white outfit or a desi wedding look, people add a lotus or sparkles, .
Black-and-white combos are their own look: is monochrome, or are chess and contrast, is balance, and or are cute versions of the same idea. Winter and snow sets lean on , and a bath-and-skincare set on . The combos list below has them ready to copy.
Things that are white: animals, food and uniforms
Some emoji are white because the thing itself is. Among animals that is the dove, swan, goose, chicken, ewe, rabbit, poodle, llama, unicorn and polar bear, which is built from and joined by an invisible joiner. The black-and-white animals, panda, penguin, zebra, orca, cow and skunk, get their own row in the grid.
On the table the white emoji are milk, egg, rice, rice ball, dumpling, garlic, salt, soft serve, coconut and sake, plus the white cup , bowl and plate they are served in. White uniforms give you the lab coat, doctor, scientist, chef, astronaut, the karate gi and the mask. and are the white cane used by blind and visually impaired people, and are the only other emoji with white in their official names.
If you were looking for a white face emoji, there is none: the standard smileys are yellow on every platform so that they belong to no one skin colour, and the light skin tone is added to people and hand emoji with the modifier, not to faces. The closest white faces are ghost, the mask, face in clouds and the outline smiley .
How to type white emoji and symbols
On a phone, open the emoji keyboard and search white: it finds and the white cane. On Windows press Win ., on a Mac Control Command Space, and type the same word. The white text symbols are harder to reach: is Alt 9 on a Windows numeric keypad, is Alt 1, and the rest are easiest copied from this page.
A white heart or circle can look different on each platform. is a flat white disc on Apple and Google but has a thin grey edge on Samsung; is pure white on iPhone and slightly off-white on Android. On a white chat background the white emoji can almost disappear, which is part of their soft look, but worth remembering before you build a whole caption out of them.
Symbols
133Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
White by name
The emoji Unicode itself calls white
White food and drink
How to use them
6 situationsClick to copyWhite Emoji combos
15Worth knowing
- In Unicode names, white means hollow and black means filled: is White Star, Black Star, and the familiar smiley is officially the White Smiling Face.
- and were characters 1 and 2 of the original IBM PC character set in 1981, which makes the white smiley older than the PC's own letters with accents.
- polar bear is not a single character: it is bear, an invisible zero-width joiner and snowflake. Delete the joiner and you get a brown bear next to a snowflake.
- white flag is the base of two famous flags: is the white flag joined to a rainbow, and the white flag joined to the transgender symbol.
- white flower shows the red stamp Japanese teachers put on homework, 大変よくできました, which means very well done.
Questions people ask
8What does the white heart emoji mean?
means pure, calm affection: support, sympathy, a clean aesthetic, love without romance. It is the heart for condolences and for friends, and from a girl or a guy it usually reads as warm rather than flirty.
How do I copy and paste white emoji?
Tap or click any emoji on this page to copy it, then paste it into your message or bio with a long press or Ctrl/Cmd V.
What does the white flag emoji mean?
is surrender or a truce. In a relationship chat it means I give up, let us stop fighting; alone it is often a joke about giving in to something.
Is there a white face emoji?
No. Smileys are yellow on purpose so that they stand for everyone; light skin only exists as the modifier on people and hand emoji. The nearest white faces are ghost, masked face, face in clouds and the outline smiley .
What is the white circle emoji used for?
is a plain white dot: a bullet, an open option, the light square of a board next to , or a blank in a colour pattern. does the same job as a square.
What are good white emoji combos for an aesthetic bio?
Stay inside the white family: , , or for monochrome. Three or four emoji read cleaner than a long row.
Which emoji have white in their official name?
white heart, white circle, the white squares, white square button, white flag, white flower, the white question and exclamation marks, and the white cane, and the white smiling face.
What are white text symbols?
Outline characters such as that Unicode calls white because they are hollow. They work in nicknames, usernames and plain text where emoji are not allowed.
