What Does the 🤦 (Facepalm) Emoji Mean?

All the different versions of the 🤦 (facepalm) emoji and clever ways to use them

Co-authored by Glenn Carreau

Last Updated: March 6, 2023

What does the 🤦 (facepalm) emoji mean?

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The 🤦‍♀️ (Woman Facepalming) vs 🤦‍♂️ (Man Facepalming) Emojis

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Responding to the 🤦 (Facepalm) Emoji

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Combinations with the 🤦 Emoji

Are you ready to learn how to use the 🤦 (facepalm) emoji in your texts and social media messages? Also called the head-slap emoji, the person facepalming, or the hand-on-face emoji, this emoticon has a lot of variations—it comes in different hair and skin colors, and it also has more masculine and feminine versions: the 🤦‍♀️ (woman facepalming) and 🤦‍♂️ (man facepalming) emojis. In spite of all the options you have, each emoji basically has the same meanings, and we’re here to help you learn them all with this complete overview of the 🤦 (facepalm) emoji.

Things You Should Know

The 🤦 (facepalm) emoji mainly represents embarrassment, both personal and secondhand. Use it to share embarrassing stories over text.
The 🤦 (facepalm) emoji also expresses frustration, usually over someone else's poor performance or carelessness. Use it to vent when you’re irritated.
Respond positively and offer sympathy when someone expresses embarrassment or frustration to you using the 🤦 (facepalm) emoji.

Section 1 of 4:

What does the 🤦 (facepalm) emoji mean?

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The 🤦 (facepalm) emoji can mean someone feels embarrassed. When you feel embarrassed about something, one natural reaction is to hide your face in your hands, like you’re cringing away from the situation. Thus, the 🤦 (facepalm) emoji symbolizes embarrassment when used in text messages, whether it’s your embarrassment or secondhand on behalf of someone else.^{[1]
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- “Oh shoot, my bad! Meant to send that last text to my mom. 🤦”
- “Got to watch Tom spill his drink ALL over himself in public today. 🤦”
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The 🤦 (facepalm) emoji also symbolizes frustration or exasperation. Ever feel the urge to shake your head or facepalm when you see someone else's astonishing incompetence? The 🤦 emoji can convey that feeling of frustration in messages, whether you’re talking about a person or situation that was particularly vexing.^{[2]
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- “Nobody in my office gets stuff done but me, I swear! 🤦”
- “Sheesh. We’ve done like 10 video calls, and Riley still doesn’t know how Skype works. 🤦”

Section 2 of 4:

The 🤦‍♀️ (Woman Facepalming) vs 🤦‍♂️ (Man Facepalming) Emojis

🤦‍♀️ (Woman facepalming) and 🤦‍♂️ (man facepalming) mean the same thing. You may also see the 🤦‍♀️ and 🤦‍♂️ emojis in place of the regular 🤦 (facepalm) emoji in texts, but the only difference between them is their depiction of gender. The 🤦‍♀️ emoji is designed to look feminine, and the 🤦‍♂️ emoji is meant to look masculine, while the 🤦 emoji is more gender-neutral.^{[3]
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- “Can’t believe I actually bought my sister’s dumb lie. 🤦‍♀️”
- “Wait, am I the only one who didn’t know we had a club meeting today? 🤦‍♂️”
- Use any of the emojis interchangeably since they all mean the same thing! You could choose one on your gender identity or just use the one that you prefer at the moment.
- The 3 different emojis also have a series of different color options, which you can select based on your own skin and hair color (🤦🏻🤦🏼🤦🏽🤦🏾🤦🏿) or use the default yellow.

Section 3 of 4:

Responding to the 🤦 (Facepalm) Emoji

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Be supportive (or laugh) when someone tells their embarrassing story. Depending on the tone of their text, they might be feeling seriously embarrassed and in need of some sympathy, or they might be able to laugh at their bumble. In most cases, offering some friendly support is the best way to respond! Alternatively, if their message has a “LOL” or a 😂 (laughing) emoji in it, laugh along with them.
- Them: “Did that thing where I didn’t hear someone, so I asked her to repeat herself, and when she did I STILL didn’t hear. So I just smiled and nodded like a fool. 🤦”
- You: “Aw, I hate when that happens! I bet she didn’t notice, though.”
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React to an embarrassing story with a 🤦 (facepalm) of your own. After hearing an embarrassing story about someone, your knee-jerk reaction might be to send a 🤦 emoji in response—and that’s totally fine! Alternatively, you could write “SMH” (shaking my head), which has a similar meaning, or send a facepalm meme (like the infamous Star Trek facepalm meme) if you want to get a little creative.
- Them: “So, Mark and Alex just broke up in the middle of a busy restaurant—and a bunch of us were WITH them. 🤦”
- You: “Yikes! That sounds suuuper uncomfortable! SMH. 🤦”
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Sympathize with someone who expresses their frustration to you. When it’s clear that someone else is feeling frustrated about something, a bit of sympathy can go a long way! You might also be able to offer some advice, but make sure you only offer if they ask for it first. Otherwise, be their supportive sounding board.
- Them: “Listening to my dad talk is SO frustrating sometimes. 🤦”
- You: “I’m sorry to hear that! 😕 Is anything in particular bothering you right now?”

Section 4 of 4:

Combinations with the 🤦 Emoji

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Use it with the 😳 (flushed face) emoji to convey embarrassment. Sure, the 🤦 emoji already evokes a feeling of embarrassment, but you can always tack on the 😳 emoji to really emphasize how you’re feeling. Since the 😳 emoji also communicates surprise, you could pair it with the 🤦 emoji when something super surprising (and a bit embarrassing) happens.
- “My family got the restaurant to sing “Happy Birthday” for me. It was fun but a little embarrassing seeing everyone stare at us! 🤦‍♀️😳”
- “I totally spaced at my meeting today! I’ve never felt so embarrassed! 😳🤦‍♂️”
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Pair a 🤦 with any emoji that depicts your embarrassing situation. There’s a pretty big emoji library at your disposal these days! So, for any embarrassing moment that might come up, there’s probably an emoji that could help you describe it. For example, if you felt embarrassed about trying to push a door when you were supposed to pull it, you could always add a 🚪 (door) emoji to your text.
- “Definitely got stuck in a revolving door today, like a pro. 🤦🚪”
- “That’s the last time I eat beans on a date! I may have had some gas. 🫘🤦💨”