Sick kaomoji look genuinely under the weather — feverish, queasy, or wiped out. Kaomoji (顔文字) are Japanese emoticons read upright, so their faces meet you head-on rather than sideways. Illness usually shows through X-ed out or crossed eyes, as in (×_×) and (x_x), which read as dizzy, drained, or knocked flat. Squeezed-shut > < eyes plus a wobbly mouth in (>_<)ゞ signal aching discomfort, while trembling, teary marks like •̥̥̥ in ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` ) show that fragile, about-to-cry sick feeling. A trailing zzz can mean feverish sleep. People paste them when calling in sick to a group chat, warning friends they're contagious in Discord, reacting to something gross or nauseating in Twitch chat, or captioning a miserable duvet-day photo.
Sick Text Faces to Copy
Eyes that say 'unwell'
Sickness lives in the eyes. Crossing them out with × or x, as in (×_×), reads as dizzy, faint, or completely wiped — the lights are off. Squeezing them shut into > < shows the wince of aching or nausea, and adding a shaky sweat ゞ in (>_<)ゞ makes the effort of just staying upright visible. Trembling teary dots •̥̥̥ give ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` ) that fragile, feverish edge where you might cry from feeling so rough. A trailing "zzz" turns a droopy face into someone knocked out by a bug. The mouth stays small and weak, because sick faces are about depletion, not drama.
Calling in unwell
Send these when you're not okay. Message (×_×) to say you're wiped out and staying home, drop ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` ) when a cold has you miserable, or use (～>_<)～ to react to something genuinely gross. They fit group chats where you're bowing out of plans, Discord servers warning friends you're contagious, and captions over a tissues-and-tea sick-day photo. A status reading "(x_x) out sick" tells everyone at a glance. As plain text they paste cleanly into messages, comments, and X without breaking, so your "I feel awful" comes through intact.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the X eyes in (×_×) actually mean?▼
Crossed-out X eyes signal that someone is dizzy, faint, drained, or knocked out — like a cartoon character seeing stars. In a sick context, (×_×) reads as "I feel terrible" or "completely wiped." The same X eyes can also mean unconscious or dead-tired, so the surrounding context tells you whether it's illness, exhaustion, or comic defeat.
How is a sick kaomoji different from a sad one?▼
Sad faces center on tears and downturned mouths, like (；＿；), focused on emotional hurt. Sick faces add signs of physical illness — X or x eyes for dizziness, a sweat drop ゞ for feverish strain, or a trailing zzz for feeling knocked out. Sadness is about feelings; sickness is about the body, shown through drained, crossed, or queasy eyes.
Will sick kaomoji display correctly on all devices?▼
The common ones — (×_×), (x_x), (>_<)ゞ — use standard characters and render everywhere, including Discord, SMS, and browsers. A few use rarer combining marks, like the trembling •̥̥̥ in ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` ), which may look slightly off or show extra dots on older fonts. If a face breaks, pick a simpler variant and it'll display cleanly.
Want a bigger set in one place? We collected over 200 kaomoji sorted by mood, including the dead inside faces people ask about most, in cute kaomoji to copy and paste. It also explains why kaomoji sometimes break when you paste them.
