Don’t Get It Twisted: A Guide To The 🤗 Hug Emoji And Other Easily Misunderstood Emojis

Everybody loves emojis, and it’s easy to understand why. Really, what’s not to love about them? They’re cute, they’re hip, and they’re the easiest way to communicate emotions in digital messages. If you want to show someone you care, go and send a Hug emoji!

That said, if you’re fond of ending your sentences with emojis like most people are, you want to be certain you’re using them correctly to avoid causing confusion or even upsetting someone.

 

Getting Confused By Emojis

It’s a common enough occurrence when people think an emoji has only one meaning, only to find out it’s got two or even three definitions. You’d be sending something you don’t totally understand, and that can be tricky and dangerous.

For all those reasons, it’s important to double-check the emojis you use, even for something as simple as the 🤗 Hug emoji, and to be aware of some of the most regularly misused ones.

So, in short, to make things easy for everybody, we’ve compiled a guide to some of the most commonly misunderstood emojis in order to set the record straight. Suffice it to say, by the end of this article, you’ll certainly think twice before sending a building with a heart that looks like a hospital to a sick friend.

 

Hugging Face Emoji

The 🤗 Hug emoji or 🤗 Hugging Face emoji shows a smiling face with happy, closed eyes, rosy cheeks, and open hands.

Use Of The Hug Emoji

The 🤗 Hug emoji is used as a nice, friendly hug, usually given to a friend or family member having a hard time. The 🤗 Hug emoji may also be used to show love and care. The third meaning of the emoji is to offer thanks and support.

What People Mistake The Hug Emoji For

Even if the meaning of the 🤗 Hug emoji is right there in its name, some people think the emoji stands for “jazz hands.” Jazz hands is a gesture in which hands are waved rapidly to and fro with palms facing forward and fingers splayed. The popular gesture is used to show excitement or triumph.

 

Love Hotel Emoji

The 🏩 Love Hotel emoji shows a pink or white love hotel. It is a hotel for couples to spend the night together. The 🏩 Love Hotel emoji is characterized by one or two pink hearts on the front. Some platforms include the letter H to represent “hotel.”

Use Of The Love Hotel Emoji

The 🏩 Love Hotel emoji is used in conversations related to romantic dates, romantic getaways, or honeymoon vacations.

What People Mistake The Love Hotel Emoji For

Some people think the 🏩 Love Hotel emoji is a hospital emoji or a sign for “home,” probably due to the letter H it’s got in front.

 

Dizzy Emoji

The 💫 Dizzy emoji shows one or more yellow stars with circular motion lines to show the movement of swirling in a circle, commonly used in cartoons when a character is dizzy or “seeing stars”.

Use Of The Dizzy Emoji

The 💫 Dizzy emoji is used to tell someone you are feeling dizzy.

What People Mistake The Dizzy Emoji For

A shooting star, probably, because it’s an image of a star in motion, and when we think of moving stars, the immediate thing that pops into our mind is an image of shooting stars.

 

Open Hands Emoji

The 👐 Open Hands emoji shows two open human hands, palms facing forward and placed side by side.

Use Of The Open Hands Emoji

First, the 👐 Open Hands emoji is used in the meaning of hugging, similar to how the 🤗 Hug emoji is used. Also, it is used as a symbol for hand shadow play and other different playful activities.

What People Mistake The Open Hands Emoji For

The Whatever hand gesture, an action that accompanies the word, “whatever,”  meaning you don’t care what the other person says. The “Whatever” gesture is made by making a “W” shape towards the other person. The 👐 Open Hands emoji looks like the Whatever hand gesture in certain angles, hence the confusion.

 

Sad But Relieved Face Emoji

The 😥 Sad But Relieved Face emoji shows a face with furrowed eyebrows, a slight frown, and a bead of sweat dripping from its forehead.

Use Of The Sad But Relieved Face Emoji

The 😥 Sad But Relieved Face emoji is used in situations such as when you’ve put a lot of hard work into something, and yet things still don’t go your way. For example, you studied hard for an exam but failed, etc.

What People Mistake The Sad But Relieved Face Emoji For

Users see this and interpret it at face value, that this is a face with a tear. And you know what people feel when they cry. As such, many people use or to show that they’re feeling depressed or sad.

 

See No Evil Monkey Emoji

The 🙈 See No Evil Monkey emoji shows a brown monkey face with tan or pinkish hands covering its ears. It’s part of the ancient Japanese proverb, “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” The other two emojis to go with this one are the 🙉 Hear No Evil Monkey emoji, showing a monkey covering its ears, and 🙊 Speak No Evil Monkey emoji, showing a monkey covering its mouth.

Use Of The See No Evil Monkey Emoji

When you’ve seen something you were not supposed to see, and you promise to pretend you never saw it, use the 🙈 See No Evil Monkey emoji.

What People Mistake The See No Evil Monkey Emoji For

The 🙈 See No Evil Monkey emoji is commonly used as a symbol when you want to say, “oops!” or a symbol to use when you’ve made a big mistake. This is because after making a mistake, young children and even some adults think that they can hide themselves by covering or closing their eyes.

 

Face With Steam From Nose Emoji

The 😤 Face With Steam From Nose emoji shows a frowning face with closed eyes and puffs of steam coming out of its nose.

Use Of The Face With Steam From Nose Emoji

Quite different in tone than some of the smileys on the list, including the 🤗 Hug emoji, the 😤 Face With Steam From Nose emoji gives off a proud and disdainful look. If you want to tell someone, “I’m right and you’re wrong,” this is the best use of the emoji.

What People Mistake The Face With Steam From Nose Emoji For

Mainly because of the steam coming out of its mouth, the 😤 Face With Steam From Nose emoji looks like it signifies anger when it is in fact meant to represent pride and disdain.

 

Weary Cat Emoji

Definition Of The Weary Cat Emoji

A cat variant of the 😩 Weary Face emoji, the 🙀 Weary Cat emoji or 🙀 Weary Cat Face emoji is a face of a cat with closed crescent-shaped eyes, furrowed brows and mouth open in a big frown, as if distraught to the point of giving up.

Use Of The Weary Cat Emoji

When you’re feeling really tired, you’ve reached your breaking point, you’ve given up, and you just want to shout to the world, “Enough!”, use the 🙀 Weary Cat emoji.

What People Mistake The Weary Cat Emoji For

Some people use the 🙀 Weary Cat emoji to convey horror or surprise. If you’ve been doing that, now’s the time to change your ways. It’s because the real meaning of this emoji is to convey how tired or sleep-deprived you are.

 

Dashing Away Emoji

The 💨 Dashing Away emoji shows a small cloud with motion lines as if it is moving quickly to the left.

Use Of The Dashing Away Emoji

May be used to represent speed, smoking, rushing off, farting, and smoke.

What People Mistake The Dashing Away Emoji For

Some emoji users interchange 🌬️ Wind Face emoji with the 💨 Dashing Away emoji. The 🌬️ Wind Face emoji is a gray or blue human face blowing wind from its mouth. The human is usually female and represents Mother Nature. They probably mix the two due to the fact that both emojis involve the wind.

 

Women With Bunny Ears Emoji

The 👯‍♀️ Women With Bunny Ears emoji shows two women wearing bunny ears in the same way Playboy Girls wear it.

Use Of The Women With Bunny Ears Emoji

The 👯‍♀️ Women With Bunny Ears emoji is a representation of the Bunny Girl, a submissive Japanese symbol popular in fetish cosplay.

What People Mistake The Women With Bunny Ears Emoji For

Many users think the two women are dancing girls, tap-dancing girls, or ballet dancing girls. In that context, many emoji users use the 👯‍♀️ Women With Bunny Ears emoji to indicate going to the club, parting, painting the town red, etc. This is obviously wrong.

 

Neutral Face Emoji

The 😐 Neutral Face emoji shows a face with a flat, closed mouth. If you’re having a hard time grasping the 😐 Neutral Face emoji, just think of a poker face. The emoji conveys deadpan humor.

Use Of The Neutral Face Emoji

As mentioned above, the 😐 Neutral Face emoji conveys mild irritation or deadpan humor.

What People Mistake The Neutral Face Emoji For

Some users confuse the 😐 Neutral Face emoji with the 😑 Expressionless Face emoji. The 😑 Expressionless Face emoji shows a face with flat, closed eyes and mouth. It is similar in appearance to the 😐 Neutral Face emoji, BUT it is not used in a humorous tone, and that is the difference between the two.

 

Dizzy Face Emoji

The 😵 Dizzy Face emoji shows a face with Xs for eyes, a mouth open in a small O and raised or furrowed eyebrows.

Use Of The Dizzy Face Emoji

Use the 😵 Dizzy Face emoji to show that you are feeling dizzy or to express dizziness. It may be used in many different ways, depending on the context. For example, people use it to symbolize very strong emotion, so strong, it makes them unable to think or feel properly.

What People Mistake The Dizzy Face Emoji For

Some people express the state of being “dead tired” or being exhausted to the point of near-death through the 😵 Dizzy Face emoji. The two Xs placed on the eyes is a trope in Anime cartoons, making it a possible reason as to why people think the 😵 Dizzy Face emoji means death.

 

Peach Emoji

The 🍑 Peach emoji shows a peach with green leaves. On some platforms, the peach contains a stem.

Use Of The Peach Emoji

The 🍑 Peach emoji is generally used in topics about peaches, but it’s got other meanings, too. Thanks to its distinctive cleft, the 🍑 Peach emoji is mainly used to represent a butt in digital communication, thus making it more popularly known as the 🍑 Butt emoji.

What People Mistake The Peach Emoji For

Most people think that the 🍑 Peach emoji is just an image of the peach fruit and aren’t aware of the sexy meaning behind it.

 

Chipmunk Emoji

The 🐿️ Chipmunk emoji shows a chipmunk, a ground squirrel with a bushy tail and puffy cheeks. The color of its fur is reddish-brown. The chipmunk is facing left and is holding an acorn.

Use Of The Chipmunk Emoji

The 🐿️ Chipmunk emoji is often used to represent parks, walks, beauty and diversity of nature. It is also used to describe someone who is a bit crazy or “nutty.”

What People Mistake The Chipmunk Emoji For

Some people use the 🐿️ Chipmunk emoji to represent squirrel, and it’s quite understandable.

Squirrels and chipmunks do have a lot in common, both are furry, cuddly, rodents with bushy tails, for one thing. However, chipmunks are smaller and lighter than squirrels. Chipmunks also have stripes on their faces, backs, and tails, while squirrels don’t.

The Squirrel Petition

Some emoji users have had enough of the confusion though, and asked for the 🐿️ Chipmunk emoji to be interchanged with the Eastern gray squirrel emoji. In fact, a Change.org petition was even started in 2017 and delivered to the Unicode Consortium, the governing body of emoji and other computer characters. Unfortunately, the petition did not succeed and was permanently closed in 2018.

But if there is one thing squirrels and chipmunks DO have in common, it’s their love of nuts, which brings us to our next emoji…

 

Chestnut Emoji

The 🌰 Chestnut emoji shows a reddish-brown, acorn-shaped chestnut, tapering to a sharp tip from its light brown base.

Use Of The Chestnut Emoji

The 🌰 Chestnut emoji is used in various meanings and contexts. Sometimes related to food and other nuts, like chestnuts, sometimes in topics related to nature.

What People Mistake The Chestnut Emoji For

People confuse chestnuts for raisins because they both have a dark appearance, and they’ve both got lines on their sides.

 

Kissing Face With Closed Eyes Emoji

The 😚 Kissing Face With Closed Eyes emoji shows a face with puckered lips, giving a kiss. Two other similar emojis are the 😗 Kissing Face emoji and 😙 Kissing Face With Smiling Eyes emoji.

Use Of The Kissing Face With Closed Eyes Emoji

The 😚 Kissing Face With Closed Eyes emoji conveys love and affection.

What People Mistake The Kissing Face With Closed Eyes Emoji For

Some people confuse this emoji as a Whistling emoji because, as we all know, people pucker their lips when they whistle.

 

Smirking Face Emoji

The 😏 Smirking Face emoji shows a yellow face with a half-smile raised in a smirk, raised eyebrows, and eyes looking to one side.

Use Of The Smirking Face Emoji

The 😏 Smirking Face emoji, or 😏 Smirk emoji represents smugness, insolence, or scorn.

What People Mistake The Smirking Face Emoji For

Some emoji users mistake the 😏 Smirking Face emoji for a flirty face due to its sly, lopsided smile and seductive gaze. That isn’t absolutely wrong, though. It can be used to express being flirty or suggestive, but it is more often used to express being sly or smug.

 

Rice Cracker Emoji

The 🍘 Rice Cracker emoji shows an image of an orange rice cracker with a seaweed strip.

Use Of The Rice Cracker Emoji

The 🍘 Rice Cracker emoji talks about Japanese food. In addition to that, the 🍘 Rice Cracker emoji can also be used to represent the saying, “I love Japanese food!’

What People Mistake The Rice Cracker Emoji For

Some individuals mistake the 🍘 Rice Cracker emoji for a burnt cookie. This doesn’t seem like a too far off assumption though. Since the rice cracker IS shaped like a cookie, and it’s got small toppings that look like chocolate chips.

 

Ogre Emoji

This 👹 Ogre emoji shows the face of a traditional Japanese ogre called the Oni. Depictions of Oni vary widely, but for the most part, they are portrayed as a monstrous red face with a shaggy mane of hair, sharp fangs, a large nose, wide eyes, and two horns.

Use Of The Ogre Emoji

The 👹 Ogre emoji has got different meanings. To sum it up, the Ogre emoji represents things that are scary, monstrous, or grotesque.

What People Mistake The Ogre Emoji For

Plenty of emoji users think the 👹 Ogre emoji is an emoji of a devil. The two emojis are pretty easy to mix up, though. They are both red, they’ve both got two horns, and they’ve both got fangs.

 

Persevering Face Emoji

The 😣 Persevering Face emoji shows a face with scrunched eyes, a slight frown, and furrowed eyebrows.

Use Of The Persevering Face Emoji

The 😣 Persevering Face emoji is the best symbol to use when you want to show the world you are NOT giving up. Furthermore, you are keeping a positive mindset, you’re doing your best to keep up with the world, and you’re doing everything you can to stay strong.

What People Mistake The Persevering Face Emoji For

The 😣 Persevering Face emoji is one of the emojis people turn to when they want to say they’ve had a rough day, week, month, or year, and they’re ready to throw in the towel on all the things they’ve been trying to achieve.

 

Conclusion

After going through 20 emojis, you’re probably thinking, what’s up with all the confusion? How does a simple 🤗 Hug emoji confuse people?

Putting it simply, it could be due to the lack of a standard emoji font. Yes, the Unicode Consortium tries to achieve some cohesion across platforms, but there are still significant variations between the emojis you see on your phone, and the emojis you see from your PC. To add to that, when you’re on an Android, iOS, or Windows device, the emojis can sometimes look different.

Check Before You Click

To sum it all up, that is why it’s so important to make sure you know the meaning of every emoji you use. For all the reasons mentioned above, it’s pretty obvious why we should all think twice before sending our next text, email, or social media post. Understanding the hidden meaning behind the emojis you choose will help you avoid some serious embarrassment. You should be able to do those things with confidence and courage because a wealth of resources are available to you. And if there’s anything that’s not clear to you, websites like emojiguide.com will always be here to help you out.

When all is said and done, small challenges like these shouldn’t take away the joy you get from playing with emojis. Emojis are a fun addition to posts, and a great way to convey emotion or give messages a little visual context. As you can see, when used properly, they can change your life for the better!