Monkey emoji

What the monkey emoji means

🐵 is the monkey face and 🐒 the full monkey, both used for playfulness, mischief and “monkeying around”. The three wise monkeys are the interesting ones: 🙈 (see-no-evil), 🙉 (hear-no-evil) and 🙊 (speak-no-evil) come from a Japanese proverb, but in messages they mean embarrassment (“I can’t look”), ignoring something, and “oops, I said too much”. 🙈 in particular is one of the most used reaction emoji for playful mortification.

Unicode name: monkey face · U+1F435 · Emoji 0.6 (original set) · group: Animals & Nature.

How people use it

• Embarrassment: 🙈 — playful, lighter than 😳
• “Didn’t hear that”: 🙉 when ignoring a request
• Secrets and slips: 🙊
• Silliness: 🐵 🐒
• Apes: 🦍 gorilla and 🦧 orangutan for the bigger relatives — see the gorilla emoji guide

Compare the options

Emoji	Name	Use it for	Watch out for
	see-no-evil monkeyU+1F648	Embarrassed, “can’t look”	Playful
	hear-no-evil monkeyU+1F649	Ignoring, “la la la”	Cheeky
	speak-no-evil monkeyU+1F64A	Oops, a secret, “I shouldn’t say”	See the shh emoji guide
	monkey face / monkeyU+1F435 · U+1F412	The animal, silliness	Literal

Chimpanzee emoji and other apes

There isn’t a dedicated chimpanzee emoji, so the monkey face 🐵 and the full monkey 🐒 are the closest matches when you’re talking about chimps. For a larger ape, the gorilla 🦍 and orangutan 🦧 are also available as separate characters, and they’re often used to represent chimpanzees in a more realistic way.

The monkey emoji set works well for jungle scenes and playful messages. Pair 🐵 with bananas 🍌 and trees 🌴 to build a lively natural environment, or use 🐒 when you want a full-body image of a climbing monkey.

Chat examples

Real messages with 🐵, and a reply that fits.

1. I said the wrong name 🙈

   oh no

2. didn’t hear a thing 🙉

   convenient

3. 🙊 I won’t tell

   you’d better not

Questions people ask