Fairy emoji copy and paste takes one tap: Fairy, U+1F9DA, as a person, man or woman, in five skin tones. Then text wings, wands, fairy dust, 12 winged faces, ten near misses and 14 combos: 52 in all.
Read the full guide
The two wings are one vowel, twice
Κ is U+029A, Latin small letter closed open e, and Ι is U+025E, its reversed twin, both from Unicode's IPA Extensions block. Wikipedia records that IPA charts first printed one vowel as Κ, then changed it to Ι. Unicode kept both, and its names list calls Κ a non-IPA alternate. The left wing is retired. The right one still works.
Folklore fairies had no wings
Wikipedia's article Fairy says wings are common in Victorian and later art but rare in folklore, where fairies flew by magic, sometimes on ragwort stems or the backs of birds. Hence Bird-back flight. CLDR, Unicode's list of emoji search words, sides with the painters: it files the fairy under wings, a word it gives no bird or butterfly.
Tips
Pick a skin tone once. All three fairies follow it, and so do the sleeper in Under the pillow and the hand in This big.
For a winged name, paste Κβ’Ι and type over the dot. Being letters, the wings match the size of the text around them.
The search box knows more words than the tiles show. Try toadstool, dust or Oberon.
Questions and answers
What does the fairy emoji mean?
Going by its search words: fairytale, fantasy, myth, pixie and wings. CLDR lists magic for the elf and the mage but not for the fairy, and wishes only for the genie. Granting wishes is the godmother's line, hence the wand in that combo.
Is there a boy fairy emoji?
Yes. Man fairy is Fairy joined to the Male sign, and Woman fairy uses the Female sign. All three arrived in Emoji 5.0 with five skin tones each, which makes 18 sequences in Unicode's emoji list, version 18.0.
Why does searching fairy bring up a skull or a troll?
CLDR lists fairy and tale as separate search words for 19 other emoji, among them Skull, Ghost, Troll, Dragon and Santa Claus. Search for pixie instead. Only the three fairies answer to it.
Do the fairy text symbols work everywhere?
Not all. The flying fairy that leads the text faces borrows an Oriya letter and two Gurmukhi characters, and α΅Β·αΆ is two raised phonetic letters. A device with no font for one shows an empty box, so send yourself a test.
π§FairyU+1F9DA. CLDR lists pixie for this emoji and its two joined forms and for nothing else. Wings it shares only with them and with Money with wings. Emoji 5.0.
π§ββοΈMan fairyU+1F9DA U+200D U+2642 U+FE0F. Fairy, a zero width joiner, Male sign and a variation selector. CLDR adds Oberon and Puck to its search words, the fairy king and his sprite in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Emoji 5.0.
π§ββοΈWoman fairyU+1F9DA U+200D U+2640 U+FE0F. The same recipe with Female sign, and Titania, the play's fairy queen, among its search words. With a skin tone it runs to five code points. Emoji 5.0.
Wings in text 6
Ιβ’ΙOpen wings: Open e and Reversed open e, the letters the closed pair is named after
ΚΚβ’ΙΙTwo pairs, the dragonfly kind
Κβ’ΙA dot with wings: a fairy seen from across the garden
Ο΅β’ΟΆStraight wings: Greek lunate epsilon symbol and its reversed twin
α΅Β·αΆPixie size: the open pair again as raised small letters, round a middle dot
ββ’βWings from set theory: Element of, and Contains as member
βββοΎ.*ο½₯ｑοΎMid-spell, with halfwidth katakana marks flying off the star
ｑο½₯:*:ο½₯οΎβ ,ｑο½₯:*:ο½₯οΎβTwo bursts of dust, a black star and then a white one
β€CaduceusU+2624. A wand with wings. Wikipedia glosses its Greek name as herald's wand, and describes a short staff with two serpents, sometimes topped by wings.
βStaff of HermesU+269A. The other winged wand. Unicode's names list says the glyph shows a heraldic staff with a winged wheel.
Fairy text faces 12
Ι(Β°γΒ°)ΙSpotted by a human, wings snapping open
Κ(`ΠΒ΄)ΙOffended, which the folklore advises against
Κ(Β¬βΏΒ¬)ΙUp to something: Wikipedia lists tangled hair and stolen small items among fairy pranks
Κ(ΛΒ³Λ)Ι .ο½₯οΎβ§Lips pursed, blowing dust your way
Κ(α΄Λ³α΄)Ι αΆ»αΆ»Wings folded, asleep, snoring in very small letters
Κ(α΅α΄α΅)ΙπSat by a toadstool, the one emoji in the row
α΅β½α΅α΅α΅βΎαΆA whole fairy in raised small characters, brackets included
ｑο½₯οΎο½₯Ι(β§β½β¦)ΙIn flight: open wings, and dust trailing behind
Near misses 10
π¦ButterflyU+1F98B. CLDR lists butterfly, insect and pretty for it, and not wings. Wikipedia says modern pictures often give fairies butterfly or dragonfly wings; no emoji is a dragonfly. Emoji 3.0.
π§ElfU+1F9DD. CLDR gives the elf magic, magical and enchantment, and gives the fairy none of them. Emoji 5.0.
π§GenieU+1F9DE. With the fairies and elves, the only emoji CLDR lists under myth. Wishes is listed here and not for the fairy. Emoji 5.0.
π§MageU+1F9D9. CLDR lists spell for the three mages and for nobody else, fairies included. Emoji 5.0.
πͺMagic wandU+1FA84. The only emoji CLDR lists under wand. Its other words are magic, magician, witch and wizard. Emoji 13.0.
πΈMoney with wingsU+1F4B8. Apart from the three fairies, the only emoji CLDR lists under wings. Emoji 0.6.
πMushroomU+1F344. The only emoji CLDR lists under toadstool. Emoji 0.6.
β¨SparklesU+2728. CLDR lists magic for it, so this is the nearest thing to fairy dust in the emoji list. Emoji 0.6.
π§TrollU+1F9CC. CLDR lists fairy and tale for it as two separate words, which is how a search for fairy turns up a troll. Emoji 14.0.
πͺ½WingU+1FABD. CLDR lists it under wing, not wings, so a search for wings walks past it to the fairy. Emoji 15.0.
Fairy combos 14
ππ§π§Away with the fairiesThought balloon, then fairy 2 times. Wiktionary glosses the idiom as lost in thought, distracted or daydreaming, and CLDR lists daydream for Thought balloon alone.
π§π¦Bird-back flightFairy, then bird. Wikipedia says wings are rare in folklore, where fairies flew by magic, sometimes on the backs of birds.
π¦π§π¦Butterfly escortButterfly, then fairy, then butterfly. An escort, one on each side.
ππ§β¨Fairy breadBread, then butter, then sparkles. White bread, butter and hundreds and thousands, by Wikipedia's account a children's party food in Australia and New Zealand. CLDR lists sprinkles for Cupcake alone, so Sparkles stands in.
π³πͺπ§Fairy doorDeciduous tree, then door, then fairy. Wikipedia describes a fairy door as a miniature door, usually at the base of a tree, where people leave notes, wishes or gifts.
π·ππ§πΏπΌFairy gardenTulip, then mushroom, then fairy, then herb, then blossom. A flower bed with a tenant.
π§ββοΈπͺβ¨Fairy godmotherWoman fairy, then magic wand, then sparkles. Wikipedia notes that fairy godmothers are rare in fairy tales, and were made familiar by the literary ones of Madame d'Aulnoy, Charles Perrault and others.
ππ§ββοΈπ§ββοΈπFairy king and queenCrown, then man fairy, then woman fairy, then crown. CLDR lists Oberon for the man and Titania for the woman, the king and queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
πππ§ππFairy ringMushroom 2 times, then fairy, then mushroom 2 times. Wikipedia defines a fairy ring as a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms, put down in western European tradition to elves or fairies dancing.
ππ§π°Fairy taleOpen book, then fairy, then castle. CLDR lists fantasy for Open book and fairytale for the fairy.
πΈπ§πΈFlower fairyCherry blossom, then fairy, then cherry blossom. CLDR lists spring and springtime for Cherry blossom.
π§β¨β¨β¨Pixie dustFairy, then sparkles 3 times. CLDR lists pixie for the fairy and magic for the sparkles.
π€π§This bigPinching hand, then fairy. Wikipedia records fairies from quite tiny to the size of a human, and CLDR lists little for Pinching hand. Both follow the skin tone you pick.
π¦·ππ§πͺUnder the pillowTooth, then person in bed, then fairy, then coin. The tooth fairy as Wikipedia tells it: a tooth under the pillow, a visit during sleep, a small payment left. Sleeper and fairy both follow the skin tone you pick.