Closed mouths
‿ ◡ ⌣ ᴗ
A simple upward curve. Reads as warm, sincere and quiet — the safest smile to send.
The mouth, not the celebration
Kaomoji Smile
This page is about the smile itself, not the mood around it. Every face here keeps its hands down: no raised arms, no celebration, nothing that turns a smile into a reaction. What changes from one to the next is the mouth, and that is a surprisingly fine instrument.
(◠‿◠)
Quick answer
Which one should you use?
(◠‿◠) is the standard smiling kaomoji. The mouth character sets the register: ‿ and ◡ are gentle and closed, ▽ and ∀ are open and wide, and ⌣ sits between them. For a knowing or sly smile, change the eyes instead and keep the mouth — (¬‿¬) uses the same smile as (◠‿◠) and reads completely differently.
Copy and paste
20 kaomoji smile
Every face is plain text. Tap one to copy it, then paste it wherever you are typing — it travels as ordinary characters, not as an image.
(◠‿◠)
The plain smile
Curved eyes above a curved mouth — the baseline.
(＾‿＾)
Full-width smile
Wider brackets give it more room, and the extra air calms it down.
(ᵔ‿ᵔ)
Curved-eye smile
Both eyes arched shut. Content, not amused.
(◡‿◡)
Soft smile
The gentlest of the group; all three curves match.
( ˙ ▿ ˙ )
Open small smile
A triangle mouth kept small by the spacing.
(´◡`)
Relaxed smile
Accents instead of eyes — understated.
(⌒‿⌒)
Arched smile
The ⌒ eyes are the widest arcs available.
(￣▿￣)
Content smile
Closed eyes drawn as full-width bars.
(・∀・)
Wide grin
The ∀ mouth shows teeth; slightly mischievous.
(´ω`)
Gentle smile
The ω mouth makes it soft and animal-like.
(ᴗ ᴗ)
Eyes-closed smile
No mouth at all — the eyes carry it.
( ˘⌣˘ )
Quiet smile
Small and closed; good for agreeing with something.
(◕‿↼)
Winking smile
One eye open, one closing — playful.
(¬‿¬)
Sly smile
The same mouth as the plain smile, with knowing eyes.
(◜ᴗ◝)
Arc smile
Three curves and nothing else.
(°∀°)
Bright grin
Degree-sign eyes over an open mouth.
(ᗒᴗᗕ)
Beaming smile
Canadian syllabics as wide squeezed-shut eyes.
( ´ ▽ ` )
Open smile
Generous spacing keeps a wide mouth relaxed.
(◠◡◠)
Symmetrical smile
Eyes and mouth all drawn from the same arc.
(๑ᵕ⌣ᵕ๑)
Cheeky smile
Rounded cheeks around a closed, pleased mouth.
How they are built
The parts these faces are made of
Kaomoji are assembled rather than drawn. Once you can see the components, you can adjust any face on this page instead of hunting for a different one.
Open mouths
▽ ∀ ▿ ᗢ
Show teeth or an open jaw. Louder, and they push the face from smiling towards grinning.
Smiling eyes
◠ ⌒ ᵔ ˘ ^
Arched shut. Pairing them with a closed mouth is what makes a face read as genuinely warm.
Knowing eyes
¬ ≖ ↼ ・
Flat or half-closed. Keep the same mouth and the smile turns sly without becoming unfriendly.
Before you paste
Getting them to arrive intact
Paste as plain text
Markdown and rich-text editors treat backslashes, underscores and asterisks as formatting. A smile that arrives missing an eye was parsed rather than pasted.
Change the eyes, not the mouth
The mouth sets the volume and the eyes set the intent. If a smile is nearly right but lands too sincere or too smug, swap the eye pair and leave everything else alone.
Width is not guaranteed
Full-width characters like ＾ and ￣ occupy a whole cell while Latin ones occupy half, so the same smile can look balanced in one app and lopsided in another.
Read more
Faces with a full write-up
Some of these have their own page covering where the face came from and how its meaning has shifted.
Questions
Kaomoji Smile FAQ
What is the smiling kaomoji?
(◠‿◠) is the standard. It uses arched eyes above a simple curved mouth, which is the most neutral smile available — warm without being excited, and safe in almost any conversation.
What is the difference between a smile and a happy kaomoji?
Smiling faces keep their hands down and describe an expression. Happy faces often add raised arms and become a reaction to something. (◠‿◠) smiles at you; ヽ(´▽`)/ is celebrating, and sending the second under small news comes out sarcastic.
How do you make a smiling mouth in a kaomoji?
Use ‿ ◡ ⌣ or ᴗ for a closed, gentle smile, or ▽ ∀ and ▿ for an open one. The closed curves read as sincere and the open ones as loud, so the mouth alone moves a face from a quiet smile to a full grin without touching the eyes.
What does (¬‿¬) mean?
A sly or knowing smile — the mouth is the same ‿ curve as a plain smile, but the ¬ eyes are flat and half-lidded. It implies the sender knows something they have not said, in the same way 😏 does.
Keep exploring