Doughnut Emoji

The donut emoji shows a ring-shaped pastry with colorful frosting and sprinkles. It's comfort food personified: sweet, indulgent, and impossible to eat just one.

In texting, 🍩 primarily means treats, cravings, coffee breaks, and self-indulgence. 'I deserve a donut 🍩' is the universal reward signal after a hard day. It pairs naturally with ☕ for the quintessential break combo.

But 🍩 has layers (like a cruller). In Gen Z slang, "glazing" means over-praising or over-complimenting someone, and the donut emoji sometimes references this. In sports, a 'donut' means zero (scoring nothing, getting blanked). And in NSFW contexts, the donut's ring shape makes it an occasional sexual innuendo.

Culturally, two associations dominate. The first is Homer Simpson, whose obsession with donuts (especially pink-frosted ones) made him pop culture's ultimate donut lover. The second is the cops-and-donuts stereotype, which actually has a real history: in the 1950s, donut shops like Dunkin' Donuts actively courted police officers, offering workspace and free coffee during late-night shifts.

🍩 is the emoji of unapologetic indulgence. On social media, it shows up in three main contexts.

The first is food content: donut shop visits, baking posts, breakfast spreads, and coffee pairings. Krispy Kreme's 'Hot Now' sign has its own cult following, and 🍩 is the default accompaniment.

The second is treat-yourself culture. 'I deserve this 🍩' is self-care language. Diet culture tried to make donuts the villain for decades, but body-positive social media flipped the script. Now sharing a donut post is a small act of defiance.

The third is humor and references. Homer Simpson quotes ('Mmm... donuts 🍩'), cop jokes, and the 'glazing' slang all show up. In sports discussions, 'he put up a donut 🍩' means someone scored zero. The emoji does a lot of work across very different contexts.

• ⛑️
  1917: Lassies fry doughnuts in soldiers' helmets in France
• 🍳
  Peak production: ~9,000 doughnuts a day at the front
• 🏙️
  1938: First National Doughnut Day, Chicago, Salvation Army
• 📅
  Annually: first Friday of June

The donut's history as we know it traces to Dutch settlers in 19th-century America who brought 'olykoeks' (oily cakes). The ring shape with a hole is attributed to several stories, the most popular being that ship captain Hanson Gregory punched out the center in 1847 to solve the raw-center problem.

The cops-and-donuts connection started in the 1950s when donut shops became the only 24-hour businesses in most American neighborhoods. Officers on night patrol needed coffee and a place to do paperwork. Dunkin' Donuts founder William Rosenberg actively cultivated the police relationship, offering workspace and noting it kept his stores safe. What started as mutual convenience became a cultural stereotype.

Homer Simpson cemented the donut as a comedy icon when The Simpsons debuted in 1989. His pink-frosted donut with sprinkles is one of television's most recognizable food items.

The emoji was approved in Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

• •The cops-and-donuts connection started in the 1950s when donut shops were the only 24-hour businesses. Dunkin' Donuts founder William Rosenberg credited the police relationship with the company's early success.
• •Homer Simpson's pink-frosted donut with sprinkles is based on a real Voodoo Doughnut item in Portland, Oregon. The Simpsons has been on air since 1989, making Homer's donut obsession a 35+ year running gag.
• •The ring shape with a hole is attributed to ship captain Hanson Gregory, who reportedly punched out the center in 1847 so the dough would cook evenly.
• •In sports, a 'donut' means zero. Scoring nothing, getting blanked, putting up a donut. The round hole mirrors the number 0.

• •Homer Simpson (The Simpsons, 1989-) — Homer's 'Mmm... donuts' is one of television's most quoted food moments. His pink-frosted donut with sprinkles became so iconic that real donut shops (like Voodoo Doughnut in Portland) sell Homer-inspired versions.
• •Cops and donuts (1950s-) — The stereotype has real roots: donut shops were the only 24-hour businesses where officers could get coffee and do paperwork on night shifts. Dunkin' Donuts actively cultivated this, and the relationship became comedy gold.
• •Krispy Kreme's 'Hot Now' sign — The illuminated sign indicating fresh donuts became a cult cultural phenomenon. People drive out of their way for the sign. It's the donut equivalent of a bat signal.
• •"Glazing" Gen Z slang — The donut connection to 'glazing' (over-praising someone) created a new layer of meaning. A glazed donut is literally covered in sweetness, just like a glazer covers someone in compliments.

• •Doughnut is U+1F369U+1F369, from Unicode 6.0 (2010). The official Unicode name uses the British spelling 'doughnut,' not 'donut.'
• •Shortcodes: :doughnut::doughnut: on most platforms. Some also support :donut::donut:.
• •This is a common test emoji for rendering checks because the sprinkles and frosting colors vary significantly across platforms.

See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.