🤐 Face with a Zipper Mouth, Be quiet, Shut up

🤐 Meaning and usage

Perfect, capacious, and very powerful! The emoji 🤐 is a firm, definitive, and visual ban on speech . Officially called "Zipper-Mouth Face ," the zipper where the mouth should be is its absolute and uncompromising metaphor.

🤐 Direct meaning: Silence, prohibition on talking, obligation to keep a secret.

🤐 Modern, social and imperative meanings:

• "My lips are sealed", "Secret".

  • I was told, but I won't tell anyone 🤐.

• An order or request to be silent. "Quiet! Don't talk about that here! 🤐"

• A conscious decision to remain silent. To avoid saying something in anger or revealing someone else's secret.

  • I'd better keep quiet, otherwise I'll say too much 🤐.

• Sarcastic "I don't know anything officially/I won't say anything."

  • About insider information? 🤐 (hint: I know, but I won't say).

• The inability to speak out due to rules, fear or censorship.

• In games and challenges: Designation of the rule "no talking" (as in the game "Crocodile").

How it appeared

The 🤐 emoji is fairly new . It was approved as part of Unicode 8.0 in 2015 and launched on platforms in 2016. Its design is based on the classic gesture of swiping your finger across your lips, as if zipping up a zipper.

Interesting facts

• The "I Can't Say" meme: Often used on social media when someone wants to hint that they have "hot" information but can't share it, creating a stir.
• Censorship Symbol: Can be used in a political or social context to represent the suppression of issues, media censorship, or the inability to speak the truth.
• Popular in corporate environments: In chats, it may refer to information related to an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
• Hierarchy of Silence:

😶 (Face Without Mouth) — No mouth. Shock, speechlessness, reflection.

🤫 (Shushing Face) — A finger to the lips. "Shh!", a request for others to be quieter, a delicate secret.

🤐 (Zipper-Mouth Face) — Lightning on the lips. Strict self-restraint, a promise, an order, a complete ban. The most powerful of the three.

Combining 🤐 with other emojis

🤐 🤫 😶 🔒 — A full set of "silent" emoji, from asking others to remaining silent.

🤐 👔 💼 📑 — Corporate or commercial secret, NDA.

🤐 👮‍♂️ 🚔 🕵️ — Information about the case that cannot be disclosed.

🤐 😏 😈 🎭 — “I know something you don’t know” — a playful or malicious tone.

🤐 ❤️ 👩‍❤️‍👨 💍 — A secret marriage proposal or a hidden relationship.

🤐 📵 🚫 📢 — A complete ban on discussing or distributing information.

🤐 🎁 🎂 🎉 — A secret related to preparing a holiday surprise.

🤐 🇺🇳 🏛️ 🗣️ — Political censorship, diplomatic secrecy.

🤐 for SEO website promotion

The 🤐 emoji is a powerful symbol for contexts that involve secrecy, commitment, and control over information:

1. Corporate blogs and HR: Discussion of trade secrets, NDAs, and confidential projects.
2. Legal and notary services: Symbol of attorney-client privilege, confidentiality.
3. Public pages with gossip and insider information: To create intrigue around the "leaked" information.
4. Political reviews and human rights resources: To indicate censorship or suppression of topics.
5. Websites for organizing holidays and surprises.
6. Chatbots and support services: Can be used when a bot cannot provide certain information ("I'm not allowed to discuss this 🤐").
7. Gaming communities (especially those with story-driven mysteries): Spoiler warning.

🤐 is the emoji of obligation and prohibition . It transforms silence from a passive state into an active, almost physical action—like zipping up a zipper. It symbolizes willpower (the ability to refrain from speaking), a social contract (keeping a secret), or external coercion (under threat of punishment). The most uncompromising and visually striking way to say "not a word" in the digital space.