Hole Emoji
U+1F573:hole:About Hole π³οΈ
Hole () is part of the Smileys & Emotion group in Unicode. Type on GitHub and Slack to use it. Click copy above to grab it, paste it anywhere.
Works in iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, and every app that supports Unicode.
Meaning varies across cultures, see cultural notes below.
Scroll down for the full story: meaning, trends, combos, and more.
How it looks
What does it mean?
The hole emoji is a round, pitch-black cartoon hole, the kind a Looney Tunes character would paint on a wall and then walk through. Officially it can represent a manhole, a golf hole, or a rabbit hole, but in texting it's become shorthand for wanting to disappear. "I just sent that text to my boss instead of my friend π³οΈ" captures the feeling perfectly. You're not sad, you're not angry. You just need the earth to open up and swallow you for about 45 minutes.
What makes π³οΈ interesting is how metaphorical it gets. People use it for rabbit holes (lost three hours reading Wikipedia at 2am ππ³οΈ), for voids and emptiness, for situations that are bottomless money pits, and for the universal human desire to crawl into a hole when something goes wrong. It doesn't carry heavy emotional weight the way π or π do. It's lighter, almost playful, like acknowledging that something went sideways without dwelling on it.
You'll see π³οΈ most often in stories about embarrassment, awkward encounters, and minor disasters. The classic combo is π€Έπ³οΈ or πΆπ³οΈ, a person doing a cartwheel or walking right into the void. On TikTok and Snapchat, it shows up in captions about cringe moments, failed attempts at flirting, or accidentally liking someone's photo from 2019.
It also gets used when someone goes down a rabbit hole: conspiracy theories, late-night shopping sprees, or binge-watching an entire series in one sitting. The emoji works because it's inherently visual. You don't need to explain it. A hole is a hole. You fell in.
In texting, π³οΈ almost always means wanting to disappear after something embarrassing. It can also mean going down a rabbit hole (getting lost in research or a topic), experiencing a void or emptiness, or describing a situation that's a bottomless pit. The literal hole-in-the-ground meaning is less common in casual messaging.
The person-cartwheeling-into-a-hole combo (π€Έπ³οΈ) is one of the most popular emoji sequences on social media. It means dramatically removing yourself from a situation after something embarrassing or cringeworthy happened. Think of it as the emoji equivalent of "I'm out" with a theatrical exit.
A person walking straight into a hole (πΆπ³οΈ) means someone is unknowingly heading into trouble or a bad situation. It can be used for yourself ("me walking into another bad decision πΆπ³οΈ") or to describe someone else's impending disaster.
What it means from...
If your crush sends you π³οΈ, they're probably reacting to something embarrassing they just did or said. It's self-deprecating, which means they feel comfortable enough around you to admit they messed up. That's a good sign. If it comes after something you said, they might be saying "I want to crawl in a hole" in a cute way.
Between partners, this is pure comedy. "I just told your mom that story π³οΈ" or "I waved back at someone who wasn't waving at me π³οΈ." It's shared cringe. The fact that they're telling you about it means they're not actually upset, they just need you to laugh at them.
Friends use this after recounting disasters. Bad dates, work mishaps, accidentally replying-all. The π³οΈ is the punctuation mark at the end of a story that went wrong. It replaces "kill me now" without the dramatic weight.
From a family member, probably follows a story about an embarrassing moment at a gathering. "Your uncle asked your girlfriend when the baby's due π³οΈ." It's cringe by proxy.
A coworker sending π³οΈ after a meeting means something went wrong and they need to vent about it. It's a safe, neutral way to express professional embarrassment without saying anything that could end up in an HR folder.
From someone you don't know well, it usually follows a failed interaction or awkward exchange. It's a self-aware acknowledgment that things didn't go as planned. Harmless.
Flirty or friendly?
Almost never flirty on its own. The hole emoji is about embarrassment and avoidance, not attraction. The one exception: if someone uses it after you compliment them ("you looked really good tonight" / "π³οΈ"), that's flustered, which can be a form of flirting. Pay attention to context.
- β’π³οΈ after a compliment? Flustered. Might be interested.
- β’π³οΈ after their own joke? Self-deprecating humor. Friendly.
- β’π€Έπ³οΈ in response to you? They're embarrassed by something you said or did. Check what came before.
- β’π³οΈ with no context? They're having a day. Ask what happened.
When a guy sends π³οΈ, he's usually telling you about something embarrassing that happened to him. It's self-deprecating humor: "I just tripped in front of everyone π³οΈ." It's not flirty or romantic on its own. If it comes after you complimented him, he might be flustered, which is a different story.
Same as from anyone: she probably did something awkward and wants to disappear. Girls often pair it with π€Έ (cartwheeling into the void) or send it after recounting a cringe story. It's lighthearted. If she sends it after you said something, she might be hiding her reaction, possibly embarrassed in a good way.
Emoji combos
Origin story
The hole emoji didn't start as an emoji at all. It began as a glyph in Microsoft's Webdings font, a dingbat typeface shipped with Internet Explorer 4.0 in 1997 and bundled into every version of Windows since Windows 98. In 2011, Michel Suignard, then project editor of ISO/IEC 10646, proposed encoding all the pictographic Wingdings and Webdings characters that weren't already in Unicode. The proposal (L2/11-052) covered hundreds of symbols, and the hole was among them.
Unicode accepted it in version 7.0 (June 2014), where it landed in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block alongside some unusual neighbors: the man in business suit levitating (), the spy (), and the dark sunglasses (). All four came from Webdings.
Unicode gave it the official alias "Portable Hole," a direct nod to the Dungeons & Dragons magic item) that looks exactly like the emoji: a circle of black fabric you can unfold and place on any surface to create a hole. The D&D portable hole first appeared in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement. Forty years later, it became an emoji.
Proposed in L2/11-052 (2011) by Michel Suignard as part of the Wingdings and Webdings encoding effort. Refined in L2/11-247 (N4115). Accepted into Unicode 7.0 (June 2014). Added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.
Added in Unicode 7.0 (June 2014) and included in Emoji 1.0 (2015). Codepoint . Part of the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block. One of few emojis that renders monochrome by default and needs Variation Selector-16 () to display in color.
Design history
- 1997Hole glyph included in Microsoft Webdings font, shipped with Internet Explorer 4.0
- 2014Encoded as U+1F573 HOLE in Unicode 7.0β
- 2015Added to Emoji 1.0. Apple, Google, and Samsung ship initial designs
- 2016EmojiOne adds a ladder sticking out of their hole design, making it clearerβ
- 2017Google redesigns from blob era to Noto Color Emoji. Hole rendered as simple black oval
Around the world
The hole emoji doesn't carry meaningfully different interpretations across cultures the way hearts or hand gestures do. The "wanting to disappear" meaning is nearly universal since it maps to expressions that exist in most languages: English's "I want to crawl in a hole," Japanese's η©΄γγγ£γγε ₯γγγ (ana ga attara hairitai, "if there were a hole, I'd get in it"), and similar expressions in Korean and German. The rabbit hole metaphor is primarily English-language, originating from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, though the idiom has spread globally with internet culture.
Unicode lists "Portable Hole" as the official alias for π³οΈ, referencing a magic item from Dungeons & Dragons. The D&D Portable Hole is a circle of black fabric that creates a 10-foot-deep hole when placed on a surface. It first appeared in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement. The emoji looks exactly like one.
Popularity ranking
Often confused with
At small sizes, the hole emoji and the black circle look similar. The hole has a slight 3D depth effect with a shadow that the flat black circle doesn't have.
At small sizes, the hole emoji and the black circle look similar. The hole has a slight 3D depth effect with a shadow that the flat black circle doesn't have.
π³οΈ (hole) has depth, usually rendered with a shadow or 3D effect to suggest you could fall into it. β« (black circle) is flat. At small sizes they can look similar, but the intended meaning is completely different: a hole is an absence, a void, a place to disappear into. A black circle is just a shape.
Do's and don'ts
- βDon't use it to describe someone else's situation without them bringing it up first
- βAvoid using it when someone is genuinely distressed, it's too lighthearted for real crises
- βDon't overuse it. One π³οΈ per embarrassing story is enough
The emoji can occasionally carry sexual innuendo depending on context and surrounding emojis. On its own, it's entirely innocent, but like many emojis, it can be repurposed. If the context feels off, trust your instincts.
It's generally safe for workplace communication. "Fell down a rabbit hole researching that report π³οΈ" or "That meeting was... π³οΈ" are both fine. Just be mindful of context and surrounding emojis, as any emoji can be misread in a professional setting.
Caption ideas
Aesthetic sets
Type it as text
Fun facts
- β’Unicode classified this in the same block as the π« dizzy symbol, the π₯ collision, and the π¨ dashing away puff, grouping it with other cartoon effect emojis rather than with objects.
- β’The emoji originated from Microsoft's 1997 Webdings font, making it roughly 20 years older than its Unicode encoding.
- β’Japanese has the expression η©΄γγγ£γγε ₯γγγ ("if there were a hole, I'd get in it") for acute embarrassment, which maps perfectly to how the emoji is used in texting.
- β’Placing a D&D Portable Hole inside a Bag of Holding opens a gate to the Astral Plane and destroys both items. The emoji version is less dramatic but still effective for making things disappear.
Common misinterpretations
- β’Some people read it as a black circle or button, especially on platforms where the 3D shadow effect is subtle. If your message depends on the reader seeing a hole, add context.
- β’On rare occasions it gets used with sexual innuendo in certain contexts. Be aware of who you're texting and what emojis surround it.
In pop culture
- β’Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) gave us "down the rabbit hole," now one of the internet's most-used metaphors. The phrase originally described Alice falling into the White Rabbit's burrow. Today it means losing yourself in a topic, a search, or a conspiracy theory.
- β’The D&D Portable Hole, first published in 1975, is the literal inspiration for the emoji's Unicode alias. It's a rare magic item that looks like a circle of black cloth.
- β’Looney Tunes' "portable hole" gag, where characters paint a black circle on a wall and run through it like a door, predates both D&D and the emoji. The visual language of the hole emoji is closer to this than to any realistic hole.
- β’The TikTok Square Hole meme (2023) turned "the square hole" into a punchline. Every shape goes in the square hole. The hole emoji rode this wave in comment sections.
Trivia
For developers
- β’Codepoint . One of the emojis that has a text presentation by default. Append Variation Selector-16 () to force emoji presentation: .
- β’UTF-8 encoding: . UTF-16 surrogate pair: .
- β’Shortcodes: on GitHub, Slack, and Discord. CLDR short name: .
- β’When matching this emoji in regex, account for both the text and emoji presentation variants. The raw character (without FE0F) is valid but renders differently across platforms.
The hole emoji was added in Unicode 7.0 (June 2014) and included in Emoji 1.0 in 2015. It originated from Microsoft's Webdings font (1997) and was proposed for Unicode encoding by Michel Suignard in 2011.
The hole emoji has a text presentation by default, meaning some platforms display it as a simple black glyph unless Variation Selector-16 (an invisible Unicode character) is appended to force emoji-style rendering. If you're seeing a plain symbol instead of a colorful emoji, your device or app might not be applying the variation selector.
See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.
What does π³οΈ mean to you?
Select all that apply
- Hole Emoji (emojipedia.org)
- U+1F573 HOLE Unicode Character (codepoints.net)
- Webdings (wikipedia.org)
- Proposal to add Wingdings and Webdings Symbols (L2/11-052) (unicode.org)
- Emoji One Launches 2016 Collection (blog.emojipedia.org)
- The Square Hole (knowyourmeme.com)
- Holy Moly Emoji (knowyourmeme.com)
- Down the rabbit hole (wikipedia.org)
- Portable Hole (D&D) (everybodywiki.com)
- Hole and Person Walking Emojis Meaning (emojisprout.com)
- Top Emojis of 2024 (meltwater.com)
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