🐍 Snake

The 🐍 Snake emoji belongs to the reptiles, filed by Unicode under Animals & Nature. In practice it comes up around animal, bearer, ophiuchus and serpent. Unicode also files it under zodiac, which shows how widely it is read.

Worth knowing: 🐍 carries a second, informal reading. In chats it often means something other than the literal picture – our overview of double meaning emojis explains which one.

You can drop 🐍 into chats, social posts, headlines or a bio. On SmileyZone it is filed under Emotions and Feelings. The character has been part of the standard since 2010 (Emoji 0.6). Its code point is U+1F40D.

• 🐍 on its own already flags the topic: animal.
• Fits messages about animal, bearer, ophiuchus and serpent.
• Often seen near 🐢 Turtle, 🐲 Dragon Face and 🦎 Lizard.

In the Western tradition the snake stands for temptation and betrayal – a reading shaped heavily by the biblical Fall. Modern internet culture picks up exactly there: since around 2016, 🐍 on social media marks someone as two-faced, often in mass pile-ons in comment sections.

Other cultures see it quite differently. In India snakes are revered as nagas and offered milk at the Nag Panchami festival; in China the snake is a zodiac sign associated with wisdom; and in medicine, through the rod of Asclepius, it remains the symbol of healing.

• 🐍🐢 – Snake and Turtle
• 🐍🐉 – Snake with Dragon
• 🐍🐲 – Snake plus Dragon Face
• 🐍🐊 – Snake and Crocodile
• 🐍🦎 – Snake with Lizard
• 🐍🦖 – Snake plus T-Rex
• 🐍🦕 – Snake and Sauropod

Easy to mix up with 🐢 Turtle, 🐲 Dragon Face or 🦎 Lizard. They sit in the same Unicode subgroup and look similar at small sizes, so it is worth checking the name before sending.