What 🙉 means
Hands over ears: la-la-la, not hearing this. Use it for a theatrical “spare me,” rather than agreement with what someone said.
The hear no evil gesture comes from the Three Wise Monkeys tradition associated with Japan: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. This member is called Kikazaru. The saying predates emoji; in chat, its moral instruction becomes a playful refusal or exaggerated shock.
When is 🙉 a bad choice?
Skip it when someone needs a serious response. Answering an apology, disclosure, or urgent question with covered ears can feel dismissive. Use words to acknowledge what they told you.
Racial targeting carries a different risk. Monkey imagery used to mock Black people or disparage dark-skinned people can be racist. That is different from friends exchanging 🙉 about gossip.
Playful, casual, and theatrical: a little performance of plugging your ears.
Don’t use monkey imagery to mock someone’s race.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
2Combination ideas
3Worth knowing
- 🙉 is a single code point, so it survives copying through almost anything — old databases, SMS gateways, printer drivers.
Questions people ask
2Can I send 🙉 to my boss?
Usually not. In response to feedback, it can suggest you don’t want to listen. Keep it for clearly casual exchanges.
Does 🙉 mean deaf?
No. Its ordinary chat meaning is unwillingness to hear or disbelief, not a statement about someone’s hearing ability.
How to type 🙉
:hear_no_evil:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.🙉Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.