The Smiling Face With Tear emoji 🥲 means bittersweet emotion: a smile carrying a single tear, used for gratitude, pride, relief, nostalgia, or happiness mixed with sadness. It can also signal brave, wobbly positivity when something hurts but you are keeping it together. It sits in the Smileys & Emotion category and arrived with Unicode 13.0.
What Does the Smiling Face With Tear Emoji Mean?
The Smiling Face With Tear emoji (🥲) shows a gentle smile paired with one tear rolling down the cheek, which communicates two feelings at the same moment.
That doubled emotion is what makes it special. Most smileys point in a single direction: joy, sadness, anger. This one holds opposites together. The mouth says "I am happy" while the eye says "this is a lot." Most people read it as one of three things:
- Touched or grateful: someone did something kind and you are moved by it.
- Proud or relieved: a long effort finally paid off and the emotion spills over.
- Brave in the face of pain: you are smiling through disappointment, hiding hurt behind a cheerful front.
The emoji is defined in Unicode as SMILING FACE WITH TEAR, with the codepoint U+1F972. It was introduced in Unicode 13.0 and Emoji 13.0, which makes it one of the newer faces in the Smileys & Emotion set. You can browse its neighbors in the Smileys & Emotion category.
Is the Smiling Face With Tear Happy or Sad?
It is both, and the context around it decides which feeling leads.
In a message about a graduation, a wedding, or a friend's good news, the tear usually reads as joy overflowing. In a message about a rough day, a canceled plan, or an awkward situation, the same face reads as "I am fine, really," which often means the opposite. Tone is carried by the words you pair with it, so the emoji works best when the surrounding sentence makes your meaning clear.
This is the main difference from a plain crying face. A crying face announces sadness. This emoji softens it with a smile, which makes it a favorite for emotions that are too complicated for a single face.
How Do You Use the Smiling Face With Tear Emoji?
Use it when your feeling is mixed, gentle, or a little overwhelmed, and a simple smile or a simple tear would not capture it.
Gratitude and Being Touched
It works well as a reaction to a kind gesture, a heartfelt message, or a thoughtful gift. It tells the sender that their act landed emotionally.
- You remembered my birthday after all these years 🥲 thank you
- Mom just sent me a care package with all my childhood snacks 🥲
Pride and Relief
When you finish something hard, or watch someone you care about succeed, this emoji captures the emotional release that comes with it.
- Final exam done, all semesters complete 🥲
- My little sister just got her driver's license and I am not okay 🥲
Nostalgia and Bittersweet Memories
It fits old photos, retired characters, last days, and endings you are glad happened but will miss. Posting a throwback picture with this emoji signals warm memory with a small ache.
What Does 🥲 Mean in Texting and on Social Media?
In texting and social media, 🥲 is mostly used for emotional reactions, wry humor, and "smiling through it" moments.
In private chats it often responds to sweet or sentimental messages. Between friends it also shows up as a joke about small struggles: a low bank balance, an overflowing inbox, a Monday that already feels too long. The tear adds a layer of self-aware humor, as if to say "I am coping, mostly."
On social media it appears frequently under posts about reunions, childhood memories, pets, and milestones. Commenting 🥲 on a friend's announcement says "I am so happy for you that I am getting emotional." Here are a few common patterns:
- Sincere reaction: a reply to a wholesome video or heartfelt post.
- Ironic coping: a caption on a stressful or slightly funny hardship.
- Nostalgic caption: a throwback photo, old song, or memory from years ago.
Because the humor is easy to miss, an ironic use can be mistaken for real distress. If someone you know posts a hard-luck joke with 🥲, check the rest of the message before assuming the best or the worst.
How Does the Smiling Face With Tear Emoji Look on Different Platforms?
The emoji always shows a smiling face with a single tear, but each platform draws the face, the eyes, and the tear in its own style.
Support arrived with the Emoji 13.0 update, so it appears on any device or app updated to that level. Based on the supported versions for this emoji:
- Apple: iOS 14.2 and later, macOS 11.0 and later.
- Google: Android 11.0 and later.
- Microsoft: Windows 10 May 2021 update and later.
- Samsung: One UI 3.1 and later.
- WhatsApp: version 2.21 and later.
- Twitter: Twemoji 13.0 and later.
If a friend's device is older than these versions, they may see an empty box or a question mark in place of 🥲. When that happens, adding a few words that carry the emotion, such as "so touched" or "trying not to cry," keeps your message understandable. This emoji does not support skin tone modifiers, so it appears in the same default form everywhere.
Which Emojis Pair Well With 🥲?
The best pairings reinforce affection, pride, or a touch of humor, depending on the feeling you want to emphasize.
- 🥰 for warmth: combine it with Smiling Face With Hearts when you are moved and full of love, such as responding to a sweet note from family.
- 😍 for adoration: add Smiling Face With Heart-eyes when something has you both teary and delighted.
- 🤩 for amazed pride: pair it with Star-struck when an achievement or performance leaves you in awe.
- 😘 for affection: the Face Blowing A Kiss emoji adds a loving sign-off after a heartfelt message.
A sample combination in a caption: Watched my best friend walk across that stage today 🥲🥰
If your feeling leans calmer and softer rather than emotional, the plain Smiling Face is a gentler choice. You can also explore what is popular right now on the trending emojis page.
When Should You Avoid the Smiling Face With Tear Emoji?
Avoid it when the situation calls for clear sincerity, because the mixed signal can look flippant or confusing.
Think about a colleague sharing news of a layoff, a friend describing a real loss, or a formal email to a client. The smile can read as dismissive, and the tear can read as melodrama. In these cases plain words are safer and kinder than an emoji with a split message.
It also helps to be careful in work chats with people you do not know well. Teammates may read 🥲 as a joke about stress, as sincere gratitude, or as passive-aggressive suffering. If you want to thank a coworker, a clearer smiling emoji or a direct sentence leaves less room for guessing.
Finally, remember that someone else may use the emoji ironically while you read it literally. When the message matters, ask a simple follow-up question instead of assuming.
How Do You Copy and Paste the Smiling Face With Tear Emoji?
You can copy the Smiling Face With Tear emoji with one click on this page, then paste it anywhere that accepts text.
Click the emoji or the copy button near the top of the page, and it goes straight to your clipboard. Then paste it into a text message, social media post, email, document, or chat app using your usual paste shortcut (Ctrl+V on Windows, Command+V on Mac, or a long press on mobile). If you want to turn a whole sentence into emoji, try the Emoji Translator.
Copy it: 🥲
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