Lion

🦁 is the lion emoji, part of Unicode's Animals & Nature group, added in Emoji 1.0 (2015). Unicode's keyword list links it with “alpha”, “animal”, “face”, and “Leo”.

Create a new emoji with 🦁

Where animal-mammal emoji usually appear

DBEmoji editorial interpretation

Applies to every emoji in this Unicode subgroup, not only this one.

Pet photos, wildlife posts, and zoo trips
Standing in for the animal itself in a caption

Technical details

Source: Unicode Consortium

Unicode name: LION FACE
CLDR short name: lion
Codepoint: U+1F981
Hex: 1F981
Emoji version: 1.0
Unicode version: 8.0
First released: 2015
Unicode group: Animals & Nature
Unicode subgroup: animal-mammal
Status: Recommended for General Interchange (RGI)

Data verified 2026-10-21 · Unicode Emoji 16.0 · How this data is built

GitHub shortcode

From GitHub's own emoji list (gemoji). Slack, Discord and other apps keep separate lists, so a code may differ there.

:lion:

Keywords

Source: Unicode CLDR

alpha · animal · face · Leo · lion · mane · order · rawr · roar · safari · strong · zodiac

How it looks

Your device

Rendered from open-licensed emoji sets. Your device shows its own design. Microsoft Fluent Emoji (MIT)

Download as image

Renders 🦁 with your system emoji font into PNG, WebP, or SVG. Pick a pixel size, then download.

Note: PNG and WebP use the emoji font installed on your device (Apple Color Emoji on macOS/iOS, Segoe UI Emoji on Windows, Noto Color Emoji on Android/Linux), so the look matches your platform. SVG embeds the character as text — rendering depends on the viewer.

Microsoft Fluent UI Emoji — original artwork

Download Microsoft's official Fluent rendering of 🦁. SVG files are vector (scales to any size); the 3D PNG is 256×256.

Questions people ask

What does the 🦁 lion emoji mean?: 🦁 is the lion emoji, part of Unicode's Animals & Nature group, added in Emoji 1.0 (2015). Unicode's keyword list links it with “alpha”, “animal”, “face”, and “Leo”.
What is the Unicode codepoint for 🦁?: U+1F981, named LION FACE in the Unicode Standard.
When was the 🦁 lion emoji released?: It was added in Emoji 1.0, published in 2015, alongside Unicode 8.0. Phones and computers show it once their system software supports that version; older devices may show an empty box instead.
How do I type 🦁 on my phone or computer?: On iPhone or Android, open the emoji keyboard and search for “lion”. On Windows, press Windows key + . (full stop); on a Mac, press Control + Command + Space, then search for the same word. You can also copy 🦁 from this page with one click.
What is the shortcode for 🦁?: On GitHub, type :lion: and it turns into 🦁 — that code comes from GitHub's own emoji list. Slack, Discord and other apps keep their own shortcode lists; many codes match GitHub's, but check the app's emoji picker to be sure.