Shrug Kaomoji

Shrug kaomoji are text faces with both arms raised and palms up to say “who knows”, led by the classic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The face in the middle is the katakana ツ, which is why the shrug counts as a kaomoji even though it became famous far outside Japan. Tap any face below to copy it, or open the kaomoji picker for every mood on one page.

Shrug Kaomoji to Copy and Paste

Every face is plain text, so the shrug copies cleanly, backslash and all.

How to Read a Shrug Kaomoji

The classic shrug is a whole body in ten characters.

• ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ starts with ¯, a macron, as each raised hand. The backslash and slash are the forearms, the underscores are the upper arms, and ツ, the katakana tsu, is the face: two eyes above a curved, half-smiling mouth.
• 乁( •_• )ㄏ swaps the arms for 乁, a rare Chinese character, and ㄏ, a letter from the Bopomofo alphabet used to teach Mandarin sounds. Together they look like elbows bent and palms up.
• ¯\_(⊙_ʖ⊙)_/¯ keeps the arms and gives the face wide, baffled eyes.
• ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯ puts the Lenny face in the middle for a shrug with a smirk.
• 乁[ ᴖ ᴥ ᴖ ]ㄏ is a bear shrugging, with ᴥ as the snout.

When to Use Shrug Kaomoji

The shrug is a polite non-answer. Use it for “no idea”, “it is out of my hands”, “oh well” or “your call”, and it takes the edge off a message that could sound dismissive. One tip: some apps read the backslash or the underscores as formatting and quietly remove them. If your shrug loses an arm, paste it inside a code block and it will usually come through whole.

More Kaomoji Categories

The shrug lives between moods. When you are baffled rather than relaxed, try confused kaomoji. When it is cool indifference, try cool and smug kaomoji. And when “oh well” becomes “that’s it”, there is the table flip and the angry kaomoji.

FAQ

What does ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ mean?

It means “who knows”, “whatever” or “not my problem”, said lightly. The figure raises its hands with palms up, the body language of a shrug, and the ツ face gives it a small, unbothered smile.

Why is my shrug missing an arm?

Some chat apps read the backslash as an escape character, or the underscores as italics, and remove them. The characters are still in your clipboard; the app changes them when it formats the message. Wrap the shrug in a code block, with a backtick on each side, to keep both arms.

What is the face in the shrug?

The face is ツ, the katakana character tsu. Its two short strokes read as eyes and its long curved stroke reads as a smiling mouth. Some shrugs use シ, the katakana shi, which looks almost the same.