The eyebrows
͡
U+0361, combining double inverted breve. It attaches to the character before it, so the face cannot be typed in order, and it breaks whenever text is normalised.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and its variants
Lenny Face
Lenny is the one text face that cannot be typed. It depends on two combining marks that attach to the characters before them, which is what produces the raised eyebrows — and also why it survives some text fields and quietly falls apart in others.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Quick answer
Which one should you use?
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) is the original, meaning knowing, mischievous and usually suggestive. It first appeared on the Finnish imageboard Ylilauta on 18 November 2012 and reached 4chan within hours. The face is four parts: ° eyes, a ʖ mouth, and the combining marks ͡ and ͜ that draw the eyebrows and the mouth's base.
Copy and paste
20 lenny face
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.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The original
Knowing and suggestive. Everything below is a substitution on this.
( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
Winking Lenny
One eye replaced by a tilde; makes the implication explicit.
( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ)
Happy Lenny
Curved eyes soften it from suggestive to merely pleased.
( ͡• ͜ʖ ͡•)
Round-eyed Lenny
Bullets instead of degree signs; slightly more innocent.
( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o)
Small-eyed Lenny
Lowercase o eyes — the least intense version.
( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉)
Wide-eyed Lenny
Sun characters as staring eyes. Unsettling, not sly.
( ͡Ɔ ͜ʖ ͡C)
Sidelong Lenny
Mirrored letters as eyes glancing the same way.
( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡ )
Eyeless Lenny
Eyebrows and mouth only. Reads as the face having looked away.
(⌐ ͡■ ͜ʖ ͡■)
Cool Lenny
Sunglasses over the eyebrows — two memes at once.
ᕦ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕤ
Flexing Lenny
Canadian syllabics as flexed arms either side.
ヽ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ﾉ
Celebrating Lenny
Kana arms raised; pleased with itself.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)つ
Offering Lenny
The つ is a hand held out.
(ง ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ง
Fighting Lenny
Thai characters as raised fists — mock aggression.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)/
Waving Lenny
The simplest arm you can add.
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
Lenny shrug
The shrug body with Lenny's face; two memes crossed.
┬┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬┴
Lenny behind a wall
Box drawing as a wall, with half the face peering round it.
( ͡°( ͡° ͜ʖ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°) ͡°)
Nested Lenny
Lenny inside Lenny — a running joke about escalation.
( ͡°͜ʖ ͡°)
Tight Lenny
The spaces removed; features crowd together.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)╭∩╮
Rude Lenny
A raised finger built from box-drawing corners.
( ͡° ͜V ͡°)
Open-mouthed Lenny
A capital V replaces ʖ; louder and less sly.
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.
The mouth base
͜
U+035C, combining double breve below. It sits under the mouth and gives the smirk its width.
The mouth
ʖ V ᴥ ⊖
U+0296, a Latin inverted glottal stop, chosen entirely for its curve. Swapping it changes the expression more than swapping the eyes does.
The eyes
° • o ~ ☉ ■
Any small character works. Degree signs are the original. Anything rounder looks more innocent, anything darker more knowing.
Before you paste
Getting them to arrive intact
Copy, never type
The combining marks attach to the preceding character, so typing the parts in order does not assemble them. Every Lenny you see was copied from another Lenny.
Normalisation is the real risk
Lenny renders correctly almost everywhere, but any field that normalises or strips combining marks — some usernames, search boxes and form inputs — will flatten it into ( ° ʖ °). Plain kaomoji never have this problem.
It is not a neutral face
Lenny carries a suggestive implication by default. In a group that knows it, that is the joke. Outside one it lands badly, so it does not travel to formal or unfamiliar company.
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.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Lenny Face
A suggestive raised-eyebrow face with a long meme history.
Read the entry(⌐■_■)
Cool Kaomoji
The deal-with-it face, sunglasses lowered into place.
Read the entryಠ_ಠ
Look of Disapproval
Two heavy-lidded eyes staring flatly across a single line.
Read the entry(^_~)
Winking Kaomoji
One eye closed and one open — a compact text wink.
Read the entry
Questions
Lenny Face FAQ
What does ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) mean?
Knowing, mischievous and usually suggestive — the text equivalent of raising your eyebrows at someone. It implies the sender has found a second meaning in what was just said, which is how it so often ends up after an innocent sentence.
Where did the Lenny face come from?
It first appeared on Ylilauta, a Finnish imageboard, on 18 November 2012, and spread to 4chan within hours. It is not Japanese in origin despite being built like a kaomoji, and Know Your Meme's records do not explain where the name Lenny itself came from.
How do you type the Lenny face?
You do not — you copy it. The eyebrows are combining marks that attach to the character before them, so typing the pieces in sequence will not assemble them correctly. Save it to a text-replacement shortcut if you use it often.
Why does my Lenny face look broken?
Something stripped the combining marks. U+0361 and U+035C are what draw the eyebrows and the mouth's base, and any field that normalises input — certain usernames, search boxes and form inputs — removes them, leaving ( ° ʖ °). It is the one text face on this site with that failure mode.
Is Lenny face a kaomoji?
By form yes, by origin no. It is upright, bracketed and built from borrowed characters exactly as a kaomoji is, but it was made in Finland, not Japan. Most people call it a kaomoji regardless, which is fair enough if shape is what the word means to you.
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