A Linguist’s Take on the Emojis in the Series Adolescence

I stare in horror at my recently used emojis and spot a pink heart. I don’t remember why I used it. I just hope the recipient doesn’t interpret it as a sign of romantic interest, as Adam, the son of the policeman investigating a murder, explains in the second episode of Adolescence, the popular miniseries by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham.

In the show, a teenager influenced by the misogynistic discourse of the 'manosphere' is arrested for murdering a classmate. As Adam, the son of the investigating officer, explains, emojis like the pink heart carry hidden — sometimes disturbing — meanings rooted in incel culture and online misogyny.

For example, the number 100 emoji (💯) refers to the theory that 80% of women are attracted to 20% of men, while the dynamite emoji (🧨) symbolises taking action against women. The colours of hearts also have specific meanings: as well as pink, a red heart ❤️ indicates love; a purple heart 💜 symbolises sexual desire; and a yellow heart 💛 means 'I'm interested — are you?'

Many viewers were left speechless. These revelations have been described as a clear sign of the generational gap. Some have even viewed them as a red flag regarding the hateful rhetoric circulating on social media. As a linguist specialising in emoji usage, I would like to introduce some concepts that can help us to understand how emojis are used in these contexts.

What we say vs. what we mean

The first point to highlight is the difference between denotation and connotation. Denotation refers to the 'literal meaning'. Connotation, by contrast, is the figurative or subjective meaning that something may carry depending on the context.

The word 'donkey', for example, can refer to the animal or, more informally, be used as a mild insult to describe someone as foolish. The same goes for emojis.Coloured hearts literally represent hearts in different colours, but their intended or perceived meaning often depends on context.

In a study, we demonstrated that the purple heart emoji 💜 is used to express feminist solidarity around International Women’s Day on 8 March. In Argentina in 2019, green 💚 and light blue 🩵 hearts became symbols of support for or opposition to the legalisation of abortion, respectively, in online discussions.

In Adolescence, it is explained that the bean emoji (🫘) is used to self-identify as part of the incel community, possibly because it resembles the pill emoji (💊). The red pill, popularised by The Matrix (1999), symbolises the choice to face an uncomfortable truth — which, for involuntary celibates, refers to accepting 'the truth' about how they believe sexual attraction works.

Emojis as jargon

Another concept that helps to explain how emojis are used is jargon. The Cambridge Dictionary defines jargon as “language used by a particular group of people, especially in their work, and which most other people do not understand”. Jargon marks the boundaries of a group and makes its language unintelligible to outsiders. The same is true of emojis.

The average user simply sees 🫘 as pinto beans. Emojipedia, a comprehensive online emoji reference, explains that the collision emoji (💥 or 🧨 on Apple devices) is commonly used to represent something excellent or exciting, in the same way as the fire emoji (🔥) or the 100 emoji (💯).

As we saw in the series, Adam explains that two of these emojis (🧨 and 💯) carry very different meanings within the manosphere. Such reinterpretations are not a digital-age novelty; they echo the use of coded language or slang developed by insular groups to keep outsiders in the dark.

One example is Polari, a form of slang used by gay men in 1960s England at a time when homosexuality was criminalised. Another is Verlan, a syllable-reversing slang derived from à l'envers ("in reverse"), which originated in the suburbs of French cities in the mid-20th century.

How do you understand a language that doesn't want to be understood?

In response to the coded use of emojis highlighted in this popular Netflix series, some have suggested simple solutions to prevent teenagers from becoming radicalised like the protagonist, such as monitoring the emojis they use.

But social problems rarely come with simple solutions. For example, TikTok's moderation system banned the incel hashtag, only for members of the community to adopt other terms such as 'sub5' (referring to men who rate themselves below 5 in attractiveness). In 2016, Apple changed its pistol emoji from a revolver to a water pistol 🔫 to discourage its use in threats. As we’ve seen, such changes have had limited effect.

Emojis are a testament to the enormous creativity we bring to communication. If Adolescence has achieved anything, it’s that it’s prompted many of us to take emojis — and their meanings — far more seriously.

Notes

This article was originally written in Spanish and published by The Conversation on 7 April 2025. This is an English translation of the original article. The original can be accessed here: Una mirada lingüística a los emojis de la serie ‘Adolescencia’.