Bone emoji 🦴
🦴 is the bone: a single white bone with knobbed ends, the cartoon dog-bone shape. It means bones — a dog’s treat, a broken bone, anatomy, Halloween skeletons — and it…
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What the bone 🦴 emoji means
🦴 is the bone: a single white bone with knobbed ends, the cartoon dog-bone shape. It means bones — a dog’s treat, a broken bone, anatomy, Halloween skeletons — and it is the emoji people reach for when they want a skeleton beyond the 💀 skull, since no full skeleton or skeleton hand exists. Added in Emoji 11.0 (2018) with 🦷 tooth and 🦵 leg. It pairs with 🐕 dog for treats, 🩻 x-ray for fractures and 🎃 💀 for spooky season.
Unicode name: bone · U+1F9B4 · Emoji 11.0 (2018) · group: People & Body.
How people use it
- Dogs: treats, dog-themed posts
- Injuries: broken bones, casts
- Skeletons: Halloween, anatomy
- Slang: “bone-dry”, “bad to the bone”
Compare the options
| Emoji | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| boneU+1F9B4 | A bone | |
| skullU+1F480 | Skull, “dead” | |
| skull and crossbonesU+2620 U+FE0F | Poison, danger | |
| dogU+1F415 | The dog | |
| x-rayU+1FA7B | Bones inside | |
| jack-o-lanternU+1F383 | Halloween |
Questions people ask
What does 🦴 mean?
A bone — for dogs, injuries, anatomy or skeletons.
Is there a skeleton emoji?
Not a full one. 💀 skull and 🦴 bone together are the standard substitute; 🩻 x-ray shows a ribcage.
Is there a skeleton hand emoji?
No. 🦴 or 💀 with 🖐️ is what people use.
About this guide
Written and maintained by the Emoji Directory editorial team, without ads or sponsorship. Meanings describe how the emoji is commonly used in public posts and messages, not an official definition. Names, code points, versions, keywords and translations come from the Unicode Emoji 18.0 and CLDR data; shortcodes from the gemoji project. Last reviewed . Spotted a mistake or a new usage? Tell us, or read how the directory is made.
