๐คข means grossed out โ the "ick." It shows nausea, but in texts and DMs people use it to react to something repulsive, cringey, or attraction-killing, not to say they are actually sick.
U+1F922
Disgusted Emoji ๐คข
There is no emoji officially named "disgusted face" โ ๐คข Nauseated Face is the one everyone actually uses for it
The disgusted emoji is ๐คข Nauseated Face โ a green-tinged face meaning grossed out, repulsed, or "the ick." In texts it signals social disgust at a story, person, or habit far more often than literal nausea.
โ๏ธ Written & reviewed against real usage ยท verified Unicode 16.0
Tap to copy ยท pastes in WhatsApp, Instagram, anywhere
Disgusted emojis to copy & paste
These are the real emoji characters โ tap one to copy it, then paste anywhere. Because theyโre text, they show up as emoji wherever you send them.
Disgusted & related emojis
Disgusted combos
What the disgusted emoji means
๐คข is the ick emoji. Its literal design is nausea โ a green face with a queasy mouth โ but everyday usage moved past that years ago. Today it mostly carries social disgust: a story about a bad date, a roommate who never washes dishes, a stranger's habit on the train, a food combination nobody asked for. Sending it means "that repulsed me," delivered as a reaction rather than a statement. It runs hotter than ๐ and colder than ๐คฎ โ ๐คข is the wave of revulsion, ๐คฎ is the punchline. On TikTok it dominates comment sections under mukbangs, cleaning transformations, and pimple-popping clips, where it doubles as a compliment ("this is so satisfyingly gross"). It also does duty as self-cringe: pairing ๐คข with an old photo of yourself means you are disgusted at your own past taste. The literal reading has not disappeared โ hangovers, food poisoning, motion sickness and morning sickness all still get ๐คข โ but people signal that meaning by adding words. Bare ๐คข with no explanation almost always means ew, not sick.
๐ฌ
In texts
Reacting to something icky someone described โ a bad date, a gross roommate story, a coworker's habit. It is a full-body "ew," not a claim that you are actually throwing up.
๐ฑ
In DMs
The "ick" emoji. Used when a crush does one small unattractive thing and the attraction dies instantly. Usually paired with a screenshot or a one-line story.
๐ฌ
On TikTok
Comment-section shorthand under mukbang, cleaning, pimple-popping and food-hack videos. Also captions like "my 2019 outfits ๐คข" for self-cringe.
๐ค
Literal use
Still genuinely used for nausea โ hangovers, food poisoning, morning sickness, car sickness. Context and a follow-up like "food poisoning" tells people which meaning you mean.
See it in real chats
How it lands in a real thread
he texted his ex at 2am and then asked me to hang out today
๐คข no. absolutely not.
lmaooo I knew you'd react like that
girl I felt that in my stomach ๐คข block him
Q. What does ๐คข mean from a girl or guy?
When a girl sends ๐คข she is nine times out of ten talking about the ick, not her stomach. It is the reaction to a guy chewing loudly, texting his ex, wearing the wrong shoes, or saying something that instantly ended whatever attraction was there. It is also the standard reply when a friend shares a gross story โ a bad Hinge date, a roommate's dishes, a coworker's hygiene โ and she wants to say "I felt that physically" without typing it. Read it as social disgust by default. If she means she is actually sick, there is almost always a word next to it: hungover, food poisoning, cramps. And if ๐คข lands right after something you said or sent, treat it as a real signal โ that is her telling you it did not land well, usually softened by a laugh emoji if she is only teasing.
๐คข vs ๐คฎ โ which disgust are you sending?
Nauseated Face ๐คข and Face Vomiting ๐คฎ look closely related and get swapped constantly, but they land differently in a message. Here is what separates them, so you send the one you actually mean.
๐คข
Nauseated Face
The queasy build-up. Means "ew," "that gave me the ick," or "I feel sick." Reaction-sized โ you can send it to a friend's story without it feeling over the top.
vs
๐คฎ
Face Vomiting
The payoff. Means "unbearable," "I cannot," or literal throwing up. Louder and more comedic, so it reads as exaggerated joking more often than ๐คข does.
How ๐คข looks on every platform
Itโs the same character everywhere โ each platform just draws it in its own style. Here are three open emoji sets side by side, plus how your own device renders it:
๐คข
Your device
Twitter / X
Google (Noto)
OpenMoji
Platform
How it differs
Apple
Pale mint-green face with a soft wavy mouth and heavy-lidded eyes. Reads clearly queasy rather than angry, and is the version most people picture when they think of this emoji.
Google (Noto)
Brighter, more saturated green over the standard yellow shape with a flat squiggly mouth. Slightly more cartoonish and a touch more comedic than Apple's.
Samsung
Green face with a puffed cheek and a more pronounced grimace, so it leans a bit further toward "about to be sick" than the Apple design.
Microsoft
Rounder face with a strong green wash and simple dot eyes. Small differences in mouth shape make it read as milder disgust on Windows.
WhatsApp / Twitter (X)
Both use a flatter, minimal green face. At small comment-thread sizes the green tint carries almost all the meaning, so it can be mistaken for ๐คฎ at a glance.
Apple, Samsung and WhatsApp draw their own proprietary versions, which we donโt redistribute โ the notes above describe how they differ. Open sets shown under their licences: Twemoji (CC-BY 4.0), Noto Emoji (Apache 2.0), OpenMoji (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Where ๐คข gets misread
The disgusted emoji ๐คข is not always read the way you intend it. These three situations change what ๐คข signals, and knowing them keeps you from sending the wrong message.
Unicode has no face officially named "disgusted face" โ ๐คข is the accepted stand-in, so people searching for it sometimes land on ๐คฎ, ๐ or ๐ instead.
Aimed at a person rather than a situation it reads as a real insult, and it does not soften with a laughing emoji as reliably as ๐ or ๐ญ do.
It is genuinely ambiguous between "I feel sick" and "that is gross" โ older readers and parents usually take the literal meaning first.
Frequently asked
Quick answers to what people ask most about the disgusted emoji ๐คข โ what it means in a text, who tends to send it, and how to copy it onto your own keyboard.
Is there an official "disgusted emoji" in Unicode?
Not by that exact name. Unicode never released a face literally called "disgusted face." The closest and most-used match is ๐คข Nauseated Face, with ๐คฎ Face Vomiting as its stronger sibling. Some keyboards also surface ๐ Confounded Face or ๐ Unamused Face when you search "disgusted."
What is the difference between ๐คข and ๐คฎ?
๐คข is the green-tinged face before anything happens โ the wave of "ew" or nausea. ๐คฎ shows the vomit actually coming out. In slang, ๐คข means grossed out and ๐คฎ means unbearably gross, so ๐คฎ reads as more dramatic and more joking.
What does ๐คข mean from a girl?
Almost always "the ick." She is signalling that something someone did killed the attraction or grossed her out socially, not that she feels physically sick. If she is actually unwell she will usually add words like "food poisoning" or "hungover."
Is it rude to send ๐คข to someone?
It depends on the target. Aimed at a situation, a food, or a shared story, it is normal and funny. Aimed at a person's face, body, or something they made, it reads as an insult โ most people take it as calling them disgusting.
Why is the ๐คข face green?
Green skin is the long-standing visual shorthand for feeling sick to your stomach, from cartoons and comics. Every major platform keeps the green tint so the face reads as nausea rather than anger or sadness at thumbnail size.
Does ๐คข mean someone is actually throwing up?
No. It signals the queasy feeling or the reaction to something gross. If someone is genuinely vomiting they typically use ๐คฎ, and usually add text explaining what happened.
Related emoji guides
If ๐คข came up in a conversation, these are the emoji people most often look up next โ each one explained the same way, with meanings you can actually use and characters you can copy.