The Person Bowing: Medium Skin Tone emoji 🙇🏽 shows a person bent forward at the waist with a medium skin tone, and it means apology, gratitude, deep respect, or humble thanks. People send it to say sorry sincerely, to thank someone warmly, or to show reverence, and the skin tone makes the gesture personal.
What Does the Person Bowing: Medium Skin Tone Emoji Mean?
The Person Bowing: Medium Skin Tone emoji means a sincere bow, used to apologize, express thanks, or show respect.
The figure is bent forward from the waist with the head lowered, a posture associated with bowing customs in Japan and across East Asia, where bowing is an everyday gesture of greeting, courtesy, and contrition. In text form, it carries the same weight: the sender is lowering themselves a little to acknowledge someone else.
The emoji also reads as a mark of humility. It can accompany a heartfelt "thank you," an apology after a mistake, or a respectful farewell. Because the posture is so clear, it works even without any caption.
What Does the Medium Skin Tone Add?
The medium skin tone modifier lets you pick the shade that best represents you or the person you are addressing.
Skin tone options in the emoji system are based on the Fitzpatrick scale, and the medium shade sits in the middle of the five available tones. It does not change the meaning of the bow at all. It only changes how the figure looks, which makes the emoji feel more personal and inclusive when you are speaking for yourself.
What Are the Technical Details of This Emoji?
This emoji is a sequence of two Unicode codepoints, U+1F647 and U+1F3FD, in the People & Body category.
The base character is U+1F647, officially named PERSON BOWING. The second codepoint, U+1F3FD, is the medium skin tone modifier. When a device sees the two together, it renders a single bowing figure in that skin tone. The skin tone modifiers arrived with Unicode 8.0, and the emoji is listed as Emoji Version 1.0 in our data.
- Unicode name: PERSON BOWING: MEDIUM SKIN TONE
- Codepoints: U+1F647, U+1F3FD
- Shortcode: :person_bowing_medium_skin_tone:
- Category: People & Body
If a device does not support skin tone modifiers, it may show the plain bowing figure followed by a separate colored square. Current phones and computers handle the combination without trouble.
How Do You Use the Person Bowing: Medium Skin Tone Emoji?
Use it when you want to express sincere gratitude, a genuine apology, or respect in a way plain words may not capture.
The bow is a gentle emoji. It softens a message and signals that you mean what you say. It fits best when the feeling behind it is real, since the gesture is about humility and acknowledgment.
Apologizing
Pair it with a short apology to show you take responsibility.
- So sorry I missed your call earlier 🙇🏽 I'll ring you back tonight.
- I made a mistake in the report and I apologize 🙇🏽
Saying Thank You
Use it after someone has helped you in a way that deserves more than a quick thanks.
- Thank you for covering my shift this week 🙇🏽
Showing Respect
It also works as a respectful sign-off to a teacher, mentor, or elder, or to honor someone's skill after a great performance.
What Does 🙇🏽 Mean in Texting and on Social Media?
In texting and social posts, 🙇🏽 usually means "thank you so much," "I'm sorry," or "I'm humbled," depending on the sentence around it.
On social media, people often use it to thank followers after a milestone, to acknowledge a mentor, or to show humility after a win. Creators and professionals may add it to a post that says they are grateful for the support they received. In group chats, it often appears as a polite, slightly dramatic way to beg forgiveness or plead for a favor.
The emoji can also be used playfully. Friends sometimes send it as an exaggerated "I bow to your greatness" when someone pulls off something impressive, such as cooking a perfect meal or winning an argument.
How Is This Different From the Plain Person Bowing Emoji?
The only difference is the skin tone: the meaning and use stay exactly the same as the default Person Bowing emoji.
The default version shows the figure in a yellow, neutral tone. Choosing the medium skin tone is about representation, so the emoji looks more like you or the person you are sending it to. Neither version is more formal or more emotional than the other.
You may also notice that the emoji is often shown on its own in conversations, which makes the skin tone choice a quiet way to express identity without any extra words.
How Does the Person Bowing: Medium Skin Tone Emoji Look on Different Platforms?
Each platform draws the bowing figure in its own style, but all versions show a person bent forward with a medium skin tone.
According to our platform data, support is wide across modern systems:
- Apple: iOS 9.1+ and macOS 10.11.1+
- Google: Android 6.0.1+
- Microsoft: Windows 10+
- Samsung: One UI 1.0+
- Meta: WhatsApp 2.17+
- Twitter: Twemoji 2.0+
Details such as clothing, hair, and the angle of the bow vary between vendors, so the same message can look slightly different to the person receiving it. The core gesture is always recognizable, and the medium skin tone is applied consistently.
Which Emojis Pair Well With 🙇🏽?
The bowing emoji pairs best with emojis that reinforce thanks, regret, or admiration.
Here are some combinations that work naturally:
- 🙇🏽 + 🙏: a double layer of gratitude or a plea for forgiveness
- 🙇🏽 + 👍: thanks plus approval, handy for work chats
- 🙇🏽 + ❤️: heartfelt thanks to someone close
- 🙇🏽 + 🥷: a playful nod to martial arts or a stealthy favor, see the Ninja emoji
If you want a different mood, the bow contrasts with shrugging or facepalming emojis, which express indifference or frustration rather than humility. Compare it with the Woman Shrugging and Woman Facepalming emojis if you want to match the tone of a message to the right figure.
When Should You Avoid the Person Bowing: Medium Skin Tone Emoji?
Avoid it when the situation is trivial or when you do not mean the humility it implies, since it can read as sarcastic or overdone.
A few things to keep in mind:
- Serious apologies: an emoji alone may feel too light. Write out a real apology and add the emoji only as a softening touch.
- Cultural sensitivity: the bow has deep meaning in many cultures. Using it mockingly, or as a stereotype, can come across as disrespectful.
- Misreading: some people see a bowed figure as a sign of submission or even begging. In a tense conversation, make sure your words clarify your intent.
In formal business writing, the emoji is usually unnecessary. In friendly workplace chats, it can be a warm way to say thanks, but it is best to follow the tone your team already uses.
How Do You Copy and Paste the Person Bowing: Medium Skin Tone Emoji?
You can copy 🙇🏽 with one click on this page and paste it into any message, post, or document.
Click the copy button near the emoji at the top of the page, then paste it where you want it using the usual paste command on your device. The emoji travels as the two codepoints U+1F647 and U+1F3FD, so it keeps its medium skin tone when pasted into apps that support it.
Want to browse more options? Visit the People & Body category to find other gestures and skin tones, check what is trending right now, or try the Emoji Translator to turn a whole sentence into emojis. If you only want a quick reaction, you might also like 👀 Eyes.
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