The confounded face is peak "ugh, why is life like this" energy in one yellow circle. It signals frustration, exasperation, or that moment you realize you’ve replied-all with the wrong attachment—again. Online, it doubles as a melodramatic groan, a soft cringe, or the polite version of screaming into the void; pair it with “pls” or a keyboard smash and you’ve got instant meme flavor. It’s also used flirt-dramatically, as in “you’re too cute, I’m suffering 😖,” because the internet loves a little over-the-top agony.
On Apple/iOS, it’s a front-facing, golden-yellow face with heavy inward-angled brows, tightly shut, pinched eyes like inverted V’s, and a wobbly, zigzag mouth that looks halfway between a wince and a quiver. The gradient shading gives it that glossy 3D sticker vibe, with a vertical furrow between the eyes that screams “I cannot.” No props, no tilt, just pure scrunch. It’s easily mistaken for its cousin, the persevering face (😣), but this one reads more “awkward-anguish” than “trying really hard.”
People drop it under bad news, awkward stories, spicy food regrets, buggy code rants, and secondhand embarrassment TikToks. In texts and captions, it plays well with phrases like “send help,” “why is this happening,” and “I can’t even,” making it a go-to for meme replies and deadline doom posts.
Definition
A face with tightly-closed (boomerang) eyes and jagged mouth. This emoji is beyond confused and has crossed over to the point of being down right angry. Dam this emoji!
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji was part of the proprietary / non-standardized emoji set first introduced by Japanese carriers like Softbank. These emojis became part of the Apple iPhone starting in iOS 2.2 as an unlockable feature on handsets sold in English speaking countries.
In iOS 5 / OSX 10.7, the underlying code that the Apple OS generates for this emoji was changed.
Emoji General Information
Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank)
222 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture
Not created yet
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name
:confounded:
Keywords
Confound, Amaze, Perplex, Puzzle, Mystify
Unicode Category Information
Unicode Category
Emoticons
Unicode Range
1F600–1F64F
Unicode Subcategory
Faces
Editorial Comment
This is the Fail face! Confused, frustrated, bewildered. To Fail. iEmoji old name: Starting to Cry. An expression that crying is inevitable.
