Try Cross Mark emoji
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Meaning & usage
What does the Cross Mark emoji mean?
Wrong, cancelled or not allowed. The red X.
A strong visual “no,” error or cancellation. It can look severe in conversation, so it works best for instructions, comparisons and unambiguous corrections.
How to use ❌ naturally
Pairs with ✅ in do/don't lists.
Reaction symbols work like visual emphasis: they reinforce a word, rate an idea or replace a short response. Repetition normally increases intensity, but it can also make a message feel more performative.
From standard to slang
The history of ❌
- 2010
First defined as emoji
According to Unicode’s Emoji Versions data, Cross Mark was first defined as emoji in Emoji 0.6, dated 2010. That label is retrospective: Unicode applied it later to the early mobile core it inherited from the Japanese carriers.
- Before the keyboard
Its visual roots
A red saltire. It is drawn as a hand-marked cross rather than a multiplication sign, and ✖️ exists separately for the arithmetic operator.
- Today
How its use evolved
Pairs with ✅ in do/don't lists.
Dates follow Unicode’s official Emoji Versions chart. Versions before Emoji 1.0 are labelled retrospectively. See the history of emoji.
In conversation
Examples of ❌ in messages
These examples show the emoji in complete messages, where the words make its intended tone easier to read.
Do not share your password ❌
That answer is incorrect ❌
Today’s session is cancelled ❌
When to use it
Using ❌ clearly
Pairs with ✅ in do/don't lists. It lands as no or wrong when the rest of the message supports that reading, and it is the surrounding words that do the deciding — so in a sensitive, professional or cross-cultural conversation, say the thing outright as well.
Common questions
About the cross mark emoji
What does ❌ mean in a text message?
Wrong, cancelled or not allowed. The red X. A strong visual “no,” error or cancellation. It can look severe in conversation, so it works best for instructions, comparisons and unambiguous corrections.
Is ❌ always positive?
Not always. Its usual readings are no, wrong, cancel, and irony or the relationship between the people can flip any of them.
What does ❌ mean from a girl or from a guy?
The same thing either way: Wrong, cancelled or not allowed. The sender's gender does not change what the character means. What does change it is how well you know each other, what the rest of the message says, and whether either of you is being ironic.
Why does ❌ look different on another device?
U+274C identifies the emoji; the picture is a font, drawn separately by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. Only the artwork changes, never the character.
How do I copy and paste the cross mark emoji?
Use the copy button at the top of this page. ❌ is a character, not an image, so it pastes into messages, captions and filenames as ordinary text.
When was the cross mark emoji introduced?
Unicode’s Emoji Versions data first records ❌ as emoji in Emoji 0.6, dated 2010. Early emoji version numbers can be retrospective, so this date describes its place in the standardised emoji set rather than the first-ever appearance of the underlying symbol.
For developers
❌ in code
Every value below is generated from the character itself, so it stays correct even where a file encoding cannot hold the emoji directly.
| Format | Value | When to use it | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode | U+274C | The standard reference. Use it to search a character map or a spec. | |
| HTML (hex) | ❌ | For HTML and XML. Safe in files that are not saved as UTF-8. | |
| HTML (decimal) | ❌ | The same reference in decimal. Both render identically. | |
| CSS | \274C | For the content property. Keep the quotes around the whole value. | |
| JavaScript | \u{274C} | A string-literal escape. Needs the u flag inside a regular expression. | |
| URL-encoded | %E2%9D%8C | Percent-encoded UTF-8, for query strings and API requests. |
Reference card
Emoji details
- Unicode
- U+274C
- Category
- Symbols & Reactions
- Also known as
- nowrongcancelred x emoji
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