Person shrugging
A person shrugging with open hands: “I don’t know”, “whatever” or “oh well”.
Your device can’t display this emoji yet. You can still copy it; people on updated devices will see it.
Variants
Meaning
- Not knowing the answer: “no idea”.
- Indifference or acceptance: “whatever”, “it is what it is”.
The shrug emoji 🤷 is a person shrugging with open hands: “I don’t know”, “whatever” or “it is what it is”. It is the emoji version of the text shrug ¯_(ツ)_/¯, which this page can also copy.
The 🤷 emoji comes in woman and man versions and in five skin tones; the text shrug ¯_(ツ)_/¯ is a separate, older emoticon made of characters, not an emoji.
Meanings describe how people commonly use this emoji; usage varies by person, group and platform.
Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the site owner.
Examples
- where are my keys 🤷
- it rained on the trip but 🤷 still fun
Looks similar
- Face with diagonal mouth🫤 is an unsure face without the gesture.
- Upside-down face🙃 is upside down: irony or “everything’s fine” when it isn’t.
Questions
How do I type the shrug ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?
It’s made of ordinary text characters, which are hard to type by hand. Use the second copy button on this page; it copies the whole shrug as text.
What does 🤷 mean?
🤷 Person shrugging means “I don’t know”, “whatever” or “oh well”: not knowing, not caring, or accepting something you can’t change.
What is the difference between 🤷, 🤷♀️ and 🤷♂️?
They mean the same thing. 🤷 is the gender-neutral version; 🤷♀️ and 🤷♂️ are the woman and man versions. All come in five skin tones.
How do I type the shrug emoji?
Search “shrug” on your phone’s emoji keyboard, type :shrug: in Slack, Discord or GitHub, or tap Copy on this page.