Male Sign Emoji
U+2642:male_sign:About Male Sign ♂️
Male Sign () is part of the Symbols group in Unicode. Added in Unicode E4.0. 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.
Often associated with male, man, sign.
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?
A circle with an arrow pointing to the upper right. The male sign. It's one of the oldest symbols still in active use, originating from the astrological symbol for Mars, the Roman god of war. The circle-and-arrow represents Mars's shield and spear.
In modern usage, the emoji marks male gender. It's the building block behind dozens of gendered emoji: every man variant (🙎♂️, 👷♂️, 🏃♂️) uses this symbol in its ZWJ sequence. But people also use it standalone to indicate male gender in bios, profiles, and conversations about gender identity.
The symbol was part of Unicode since version 1.1 (1993), making it one of the earliest Unicode characters. It wasn't treated as an emoji until Emoji 4.0 in 2016, when it gained the variation selector that triggers emoji rendering (the ️ after ♂).
In dating profiles and bios, ♂️ indicates male gender identity. On forums and social media where gender isn't obvious from context, people add it after their name or username.
In gaming communities, it marks character gender in RPGs and character creation discussions.
The symbol is also used in scientific and medical contexts for biological sex. In biology, ♂ denotes male organisms in taxonomic and research notation. The emoji version (♂️) brings that notation into casual digital communication.
It represents the male gender, derived from the astrological symbol for Mars (shield and spear). Used for gender identification in bios, scientific notation, and as a ZWJ component in gendered emojis.
Emoji combos
Origin story
The male sign (♂) traces back to ancient astrology and alchemy. It represents Mars, the Roman god of war, and depicts his shield and spear. The companion female sign (♀) represents Venus and her hand mirror.
Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus popularized using ♂ and ♀ for biological sex in the 1750s, applying them to plant taxonomy. From there, the symbols spread to zoology, medicine, and eventually everyday gender notation.
In Unicode, the male sign was included in version 1.1 (1993) at codepoint . For 23 years, it existed as a plain text character. In 2016, Emoji 4.0 added variation selectors, allowing + to trigger emoji-style rendering. The male sign also became the key component in gendered ZWJ sequences: Person + ZWJ + ♂️ = man variant of that activity.
Design history
- 1993Male Sign included in Unicode 1.1 as text character at U+2642
- 2016Added to Emoji 4.0 with variation selector for emoji rendering↗
Around the world
In Western contexts, the male sign is a standard gender marker used in medicine, science, and everyday communication.
In astrology, it represents Mars energy: assertiveness, action, aggression, and passion. Astrology communities use it in chart readings and compatibility discussions.
In gender discourse, the symbol is increasingly discussed alongside ⚧️ (transgender symbol) and ⚧ (other gender symbols) as part of broader conversations about gender identity and expression.
The circle-and-arrow design represents the shield and spear of Mars, the Roman god of war. The association between Mars and masculinity dates to ancient Roman astrology and was later adopted for biological sex notation by Carl Linnaeus in the 1750s.
Often confused with
♀️ is the female sign (Venus, hand mirror). ♂️ is the male sign (Mars, shield and spear). They're companion symbols from the same astrological tradition.
♀️ is the female sign (Venus, hand mirror). ♂️ is the male sign (Mars, shield and spear). They're companion symbols from the same astrological tradition.
Do's and don'ts
- ✓Use to indicate male gender in bios and profiles
- ✓Use in scientific or medical contexts for biological sex
- ✓Pair with ♀️ for gendered discussions
- ✗Don't assume someone's gender and tag them with ♂️ without their input
- ✗Avoid using it to enforce gender norms in contexts where people haven't stated their gender
Caption ideas
Fun facts
- •The male sign was part of Unicode since 1993 but wasn't an emoji until 2016. That's 23 years as plain text before getting emoji rendering.
- •Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, popularized ♂ and ♀ for biological sex in the 1750s. He borrowed them from astrology.
- •The arrow in ♂ points to the upper right, representing Mars's spear. The circle represents his shield. The symbol dates to ancient Roman times.
Trivia
For developers
- •Codepoint: (Male Sign) + (Variation Selector-16). Without VS16, it renders as text (♂) not emoji (♂️).
- •This codepoint is used in every gendered male ZWJ sequence: Person + + + = man variant.
- •In regex, match with for the emoji form, or just for both text and emoji variants.
♂ (without variation selector) renders as plain text. ♂️ (with U+FE0F) renders as an emoji with color. The underlying character is the same: U+2642 Male Sign.
See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.
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