Mouse

A real mouse, and by extension anything small, quiet or sneaky. Many phones draw it from the side: round body, big ears, pink nose and a long thin tail. That full body is the point. You reach for 🐁 when the animal itself is the subject: the pet mouse in a cage, the one your cat brought in, the lab mouse in a science post, the squeak you heard under the sink at 2 a.m.

Around that literal core sit the old sayings. “Quiet as a mouse” and “cat and mouse” can turn up as 🐁 beside a 🤫 or a 🐈. A mouse next to 🧀 is the cartoon joke about appetite, or about tempting someone into a trap. Because a mouse is tiny and timid, the emoji can also soften a confession: “I'm hiding at home all weekend 🐁”.

It has a festive side too. The Rat opens the twelve-animal Chinese zodiac, and the everyday word in Chinese (鼠) and Japanese (nezumi) covers mice and rats alike, so you may see 🐁 as well as 🐀 in Lunar New Year greetings in a Rat year. 2020 was one; the next is 2032.

🐁, 🐭 or 🐀: which one should I use?

🐭 for a cute face, 🐁 for the animal, 🐀 for a rat. The face 🐭 came from the emoji sets of early Japanese phones; the full-body mouse and rat joined later, alongside other whole animals such as 🐈 and 🐕. In everyday chat the face 🐭 tends to be the quick, friendly one; the full body 🐁 suits an actual creature, a joke that needs the tail, or talk about animals rather than feelings.

The rat is the one to be careful with. In English “rat” also means a snitch or a traitor, and 🐀 can be sent that way. 🐁 carries none of that; a mouse is harmless, nervous, maybe a little pathetic, never a backstabber. For the zodiac animal, 🐁 sidesteps that overtone.