What Does the 🦑 Squid Emoji Mean?

Co-authored by Eric McClure Reviewed by Anyah Le Gilmore-Jones

Last Updated: April 25, 2025 Fact Checked

Did someone send you a 🦑 (squid) emoji and now you’re wondering what it means? This is a unique and adorable emoji that can be used in a variety of different ways. In this article, we’ll walk you through what the emoji means, how it’s used, and how it differs from the octopus emoji.^{[1]
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Section 1 of 3:

What is the 🦑 emoji?

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This cute little cephalopod isn’t a particularly complicated emoji. It’s a squid, and it’s almost always used to represent sea life.^{[2]
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Section 2 of 3:

How is the 🦑 (squid) emoji used?

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1
It represents sea life in general. Like the shark (🦈), the tropical fish (🐠), and the whale (🐳), the squid can be used as a stand in for aquatic animals and ocean life. If someone is discussing a trip to the beach, a nature documentary, or a charity to save the great reefs, they might use a squid emoji to stand in for sea life.^{[3]
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- “You see this new 🦑 documentary on Netflix?”
- “You working on your science paper? 🦑”
- “My family and I went snorkeling, and I just saw a 🦑!”
- “You want to go to the aquarium later? I want to see a some 🦑”
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It could refer to seafood. Like crab (🦀) and shrimp (🦐), squid is edible. The squid emoji can stand in for seafood in general. If you’re discussing dinner plans, the squid emoji most likely just means seafood.^{[4]
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- “Hey, want to grab some 🦑 later?”
- “You up for Japanese food tonight? I want some 🦑”
3
The squid emoji may mean someone wants to cuddle. While it usually just represents sea life, some people use the squid to represent cuddling. Since squids and octopuses have so many tentacles, they’re supposedly super good at snuggling up on the couch with their loved ones.^{[5]
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- “You want to 🦑 later?”
- “I miss you. I want to wrap you up in my arms so bad! 🦑”
- “🦑?”
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It could mean that someone is wild and carefree. The noodly arms of the squid convey a kind of playful recklessness. If you want to describe someone as a little goofy, unpredictable, or strange, you could use the squid emoji.^{[6]
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- “Did you see Zane today? He’s such a 🦑”
- “I’m a 🦑 today. I had a hot dog for breakfast and I just bought a unicycle.”
- “You’re totally a 🦑. I heard you were up all night.”

Section 3 of 3:

What’s the difference between the 🦑 (squid) and 🐙 (octopus) emojis?

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The 🦑 is a squid, while the 🐙 is an octopus. There isn’t any functional difference between the 🦑 and 🐙 emojis. People tend to use them more or less the same way, so don’t read too much into it if someone chooses one over the other.^{[7]
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Could the octopus emoji be used when referring to tentacle porn? Or would it be weird to use in that context?

Hisokas_Corset

Community Answer

It could be used in that instance, but with context. Instead of sending 'Just watched some great 🦑!', add the context.

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Fun fact, when the squid emoji was first released, the Apple version of the emoji was anatomically wrong. Aquariums and marine biologists around the world poked fun at Apple for putting the squid’s siphon (a tube-like structure on mollusks) upside-down.^{[8]
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