Unicode has one clown: Clown face, U+1F921. It sits at the top, and one tap copies it. Under it are 59 things to send with it or instead: a tent, three jugglers, text clowns and combos such as Clown car.
Read the full guide
Search for the honk
Tap any tile to copy it. Search reads Unicode names and CLDR search words, so honk finds Goose, the only emoji that has the word, and multitask finds the jugglers. Pick a skin tone under More options and the jugglers, Person cartwheeling and three of the combos follow it.
Which tiles travel
Clown face arrived in Emoji 3.0, which Unicode's version chart dates to 2016. Mirror, Magic wand and Seal are Emoji 13.0 and Goose is 15.0, and a device whose fonts predate them shows an empty box. The upright text clowns use Black circle, U+25CF, for the nose, and it is red only if the text around it is.
Tips
The clown is safest pointed at yourself: Clown in the mirror, or Guilty clown. CLDR lists its Person raising hand under me and here.
Unicode has no unicycle, no jester and no wig. The stand-ins are Bicycle, Joker, which is a playing card, and the curly bracket in {:o).
For a nose whose colour does not depend on the text, put Red circle after the clown. Unicode files it under geometric.
Questions and answers
Is there more than one clown emoji?
No. Clown face is the only emoji with clown in its name or CLDR search words. It has just two of those, clown and face, and of the 120 emoji in Unicode's face subgroups only Drooling face has as few.
Why is the clown filed next to a ghost and a robot?
Unicode sorts faces into subgroups, and face-costume holds the clown, Pile of poo, Ogre, Goblin, Ghost, Alien, Alien monster and Robot. Six date from Emoji 0.6 and Robot from 1.0, so the clown is newest. Of the eight, CLDR lists only Ghost under silly.
Which text clown works where emoji do not show?
Take :o) or one of the other sideways faces: ;o), *<:o) and {:o). They are all ASCII, so nothing can go missing. The upright ones, such as γ½(^β^)γ, need a font with Black circle and two katakana characters. All 12 are this site's own.
π½AlienU+1F47D. A costume face with a plain text form as well, which the clown lacks. Emoji 0.6.
πΎAlien monsterU+1F47E. CLDR lists pixelated, game and gamer. Emoji 0.6.
π€‘Clown faceU+1F921. The only clown in Unicode. CLDR gives it two search words, clown and face, and of the 120 faces only Drooling face gets as few. Emoji 3.0.
π»GhostU+1F47B. The only other costume face with a sense of humour: CLDR lists silly beside scary. Emoji 0.6.
πΊGoblinU+1F47A. Formally Japanese goblin, and filed under mask, mean and angry. Emoji 0.6.
πΉOgreU+1F479. The formal character name is Japanese ogre. CLDR lists mask and scary. Emoji 0.6.
π€ΉββοΈWoman jugglingU+1F939 U+200D U+2640 U+FE0F. Person juggling joined to the female sign. Takes a skin tone. Emoji 4.0.
Nose, horn, makeup and pie 9
πBalloonU+1F388. CLDR lists birthday, celebrate and celebration. Emoji 0.6.
π²BicycleU+1F6B2. Unicode has no unicycle, so this has one wheel too many. Emoji 0.6.
πͺΏGooseU+1FABF. Search honk and this is the only result: no other emoji has the word. CLDR lists silly for it too. Emoji 15.0. Emoji 15.0.
πLipstickU+1F484. CLDR lists makeup and cosmetics. The painted smile starts here. Emoji 0.6.
πͺMirrorU+1FA9E. CLDR lists makeup and reflection. Emoji 13.0. Emoji 13.0.
πParty popperU+1F389. CLDR lists tada and hooray. The end of the act. Emoji 0.6.
π₯§PieU+1F967. CLDR lists apple, pumpkin and meat, and not cream. It still flies. Emoji 5.0.
π―Postal hornU+1F4EF. The closest thing to a clown horn: CLDR lists horn, post and postal. Emoji 1.0.
π΄Red circleU+1F534. Unicode has no red nose. This is a red circle, filed under geometric, and it does the job. Emoji 0.6.
Text clown faces 12
(+β+)Plus signs for the crosses painted over the eyes
(^β^)Upright: Black circle, U+25CF, for the nose
(^β^)γββOne arm out, tossing a ball along an arc
(β₯ββ₯)The sad clown: box-drawing tears beside the nose
(βββ)Fisheye characters: the clown, startled
{(^β^)}Upright, with curly brackets for the wig
β(^β^)βTwo half circles for the tufts of hair
γ½(^β^)γArms up at the end of the act
*<:o)Sideways, in a pointed hat with a pompom
:o)Sideways: the letter o is the round nose
;o)Sideways and winking: the joke was on purpose
{:o)Sideways: the curly bracket is the wig
Clown combos 12
π€‘ππBirthday clownClown face, then balloon, then birthday cake. Booked for two hours. Balloon and Birthday cake both carry birthday in CLDR.
ππ€‘π€‘π€‘Clown carAutomobile, then clown face 3 times. One small car. They keep coming out.
π€‘πͺClown in the mirrorClown face, then mirror. For the moment you work out it was you.
π€‘π€π€‘Clown to clownClown face, then handshake, then clown face. Two of them, in agreement. The handshake follows the skin tone you pick.
π€‘πͺEntire circusClown face, then circus tent. Not one clown. The whole tent came with it.
πͺπ€‘ππ¦π¦Full billCircus tent, then clown face, then elephant, then lion, then seal. Tent, clown and three animal acts, in running order.
ππ€‘Guilty clownPerson raising hand, then clown face. CLDR lists me and here for the raised hand, which follows the skin tone you pick.
ππ€‘π»Halloween clownJack-o-lantern, then clown face, then ghost. The costume, between two of the emoji CLDR files under halloween.
π―π€‘π―Honk honkPostal horn, then clown face, then postal horn. A horn on each side, since Unicode has no bicycle horn.
π€‘π€ΉJuggling it badlyClown face, then person juggling. CLDR lists multitask for the juggler, who follows the skin tone you pick.
π₯§π€‘Pie incomingPie, then clown face. Reads left to right, as the pie travels.
ππͺπ€‘Putting on the faceLipstick, then mirror, then clown face. Lipstick, mirror, result. Getting ready to be wrong.
How this list was compiled: Built by script on 2026-09-19, not typed by hand. The 36 emoji, their names, code points, skin tones, subgroups and Emoji version numbers come from emoji-test.txt, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/emoji/emoji-test.txt); names are the CLDR short names printed in that file, in sentence case. The search words quoted in the notes are from the CLDR English annotations (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotations/en.xml, main branch). Clown face is the only emoji with clown in its name or among its search words, so the first group is Unicode's whole subgroup face-costume, all 8 entries, with the clown moved to the front. The other emoji are this site's own choice of faces, circus acts and props, each kept only where a CLDR search word or the emoji's name ties it to the subject. Text forms come from emoji-variation-sequences.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt). The 12 text clowns and the 12 combos are our own arrangements under our own names; no reference list of clown emoticons was copied. Every character in a text face was checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), which also gave the formal names Japanese ogre, Japanese goblin and Playing card black joker. The year 2016 for Emoji 3.0 is from Unicode's Emoji Versions chart (https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-versions.html). All sources were checked on 2026-09-19. Licence: own work (the selection, the combo names and the wording are ours; emoji names, sequences and search words come from Unicode's data files and CLDR, under the Unicode License v3; every source is credited in source)