Exclamation Mark Emoji PNG
❗ ‼️ ❕ 🔴 ⚠️ 🚨 🔥
When texting a friend or writing an instruction, how do you draw your reader’s attention to what’s most important? Your grammar book will tell you this is exactly what the exclamation mark is for.
But wait a minute, won’t a Red Exclamation Mark emoji do a better job than this old hat punctuation?! With it, the reader instantly sees where to look first even if your message is very long. Think of it as a sort of exclamation point 2.0.
❗ The Red Exclamation Mark emoji was given the U+2757 code and included in the Standard Characters section of the Unicode 5.2 release (2009) as “Heavy Exclamation Mark Symbol.” Another notable event took place in 2015, when Red Exclamation Mark became part of Emoji 1.0.
Meaning of the Exclamation Mark Emoji
Words and sentences with this addition are not to be treated lightly. When compared to the ordinary punctuation mark, the emoji version is more visible. How exactly does it happen?
The power of the Exclamation Mark emoji lies in its color, size, and shape. Red is the color of blood, so we’re wired to immediately spot red things. It is the color of danger, first and foremost. In addition to the natural reasons, we have cultural connotations of red as a warning sign. That’s why generations of designers have used it either to catch people’s eye or as part of warnings.
The emoji version of the exclamation mark works better than its simple punctuation sibling, not only due to the color, but also because it just takes up more space. It’s harder to skip it.
Next, let’s dig deeper into the shape and its meaning. The history of the exclamation mark goes back to the Ancient Era. Some researchers believe that it evolved from the word “io,” which in Latin means something like “hooray.” They think, that one copyist added “io” to his sentence, then others began to repeat this trick. Eventually, the “i” moved above the “o,” and that was how an exclamation mark came to life.
But it also could be so that a line and a dot were just the quickest sign to draw. Imagine you’re in a hurry or are overwhelmed by intense emotions. You’d rather leave a simple mark to warn someone or share your feelings than lose another second on drawing something a bit more complex, like a question mark. Even a comma and a quotation mark take more effort to be drawn. So, naturally, the quotation mark is the winner in the “large and quick to draw” category, or at least scores high.
The Use of the Exclamation Mark Emoji
In terms of meaning, the emoji is almost the same as the simple punctuation mark. Firstly, it shows a range of strong emotions: when you’re excited, enthusiastic, happy, or admire something. Another possible emotion is surprise, but in this case, the exclamation mark is often paired with a question mark or the latter is used alone.
Secondly, the exclamation mark emoji is used to warn, to show something is urgent, or when you want to emphasize the point you’re trying to make. In a way, it’s like a visual representation of shouting.
Grammar books tell us to use the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence, but in real-life communication, we often place it before the sentence or the whole paragraph. Why wait for the end of the sentence to show the reader it was an important one?
Conclusion
The Red Exclamation Mark is the next generation of the exclamation mark. Use it to show you’re excited or to catch your reader’s attention and quickly mark the parts of the text they can’t skip. It is a safe emoji. It doesn’t have a double meaning, and you can use it in any circumstances where emojis are acceptable.
