What the 🐈⬛ emoji means
🐈⬛ is the Black Cat: a cat shown in full profile with entirely black fur, usually with yellow or green eyes. It was added in Emoji 13.0 in 2020.
Technically it is a ZWJ sequence - 🐈 Cat joined to ⬛ Black Large Square with an invisible joiner. On devices that do not support it, you will see a cat next to a black square instead of one black cat.
Lucky or unlucky? It depends where you are
Few emoji have such sharply split meanings by country:
- Unlucky in much of the United States, and in Spain, Italy and Germany, where a black cat crossing your path is a bad omen. The association hardened during the European witch trials.
- Lucky in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Japan. In Britain a black cat crossing your path is good fortune - the reverse of the American reading - and in Japan they are thought to bring prosperity, and particularly good luck to single women.
- Sailors' luck. Black cats were considered lucky aboard ship in several maritime traditions.
This is worth knowing before using 🐈⬛ to mean "bad luck" with an international audience - a large part of it will read the opposite.
How people use 🐈⬛
- Halloween. The single biggest seasonal use, with 🎃 and 👻.
- Pet posts. Owners of black cats, who are a genuinely devoted online community.
- Witchy and gothic aesthetics. Alongside 🌙 and 🔮.
- "Black cat energy." Recent slang describing a personality type - aloof, mischievous, unpredictable - usually paired against "golden retriever energy" for someone eager and open.
Related cat emoji
- 🐈 Cat - the full-body cat this one is built from.
- 🐱 Cat Face - the head only, and much more commonly used.
- 😻 Smiling Cat with Heart-Eyes - one of the expressive cat faces.
- 🐾 Paw Prints - pets generally.
