Sad Kaomoji: Sad Text Faces to Copy

Choosing the right kind of sad

Sad kaomoji cover more than one feeling, and the details decide which:

• Disappointed: (´-ω-`), (´・_・`) and (´._.`) have lowered eyes and a flat mouth: “oh well”, “that’s a shame”.
• Sulking or pouting: (｡•́︿•̀｡), ( ˘︹˘ ) and (︶︹︺) push the mouth down. They work for playful “that’s not fair” moments as well as real ones.
• Defeated: (o_ _)o and (っ- ‸ – ς) slump or hang the head.
• About to cry: (｡ŏ﹏ŏ) and (ᗒᗣᗕ) have wobbling mouths; for actual tears, switch to the Crying group.

Characters worth knowing

The upturned eyebrows in (｡•́︿•̀｡) come from accent marks placed on the bullet eyes: the acute accent tilts one way and the grave accent the other. The mouths ︿ and ︹ are vertical-writing presentation forms of brackets, used here because they curve downwards. The wobbling face (ᗒᗣᗕ) is built from three Canadian Aboriginal syllabics that happen to look like screwed-up eyes and an open, wailing mouth.

Softening bad news

A sad face after a message changes its tone: “Can’t make it tonight (´-ω-`)” reads as sorry rather than blunt. For comfort in the other direction, answer with a hug from the Hugs group, such as (っ´▽`)っ. If what you need is a single broken heart rather than a face, the heart symbols page has 💔 and friends.