Nervous Kaomoji

Tap a face to copy it: 90 kaomoji with a sweat drop, smiling through it, frozen, shaking or bowing.

(^_^;)The plain nervous smile, one drop6 code pointsReady to copy

90 nervous kaomoji. Tap one to copy it.

Smiling through it 18

Blank stare, one drop 19

Wide eyes, wobbly mouths 17

Shaking, flailing, running 9

Wiping, scratching, bowing 8

With a Japanese word 12

No brackets 7

How it works

All 90 nervous kaomoji here have a sweat drop, and some are shaking. The drop is usually a semicolon. The shake is extra brackets. Tap a face and it is copied. Twenty-five need only a keyboard, (^_^;) among them.

Read the full guide

Pick how nervous, then tap

Tap a tile and that face is copied. The groups run from mild to bad: smiling through it, a blank stare, wide eyes, shaking, then hands that wipe a brow or press together. Search reads the labels: sorry finds eight faces, the deep bow m(_ _;)m among them, and exam finds (;-人-) and (;・_・) 緊張.

What the semicolon is doing

It is a sweat drop. Wikipedia's article on kaomoji calls (-_-;) a generic emoticon for nervousness, and says an apostrophe or a quotation mark can do the same job, the way a drop is drawn in manga: (^_^') and (^_^") are both here. 67 faces use Semicolon, U+003B, and 20 use Fullwidth semicolon, U+FF1B.

Tips
  • Keyboard only keeps the 25 faces made of plain ASCII. ^^; is the shortest, at three characters.
  • Twelve faces say it in Japanese. Wiktionary gives dokidoki as with a racing heart and hiyaase as cold sweat.
  • More brackets, more shaking: ((;・_・)) is a shiver and (((;゚Д゚))) is the whole body.

Questions and answers

What does (^_^;) mean?

A smile with a sweat drop on it: nervous, embarrassed, awkward. Wikipedia's list of emoticons files (^_^;) under nervous, embarrassed, troubled and shy, beside (-_-;), (・_・;) and ^^;. All four are on this page.

How do you type a nervous kaomoji on a keyboard?

Open bracket, caret, underscore, caret, semicolon, close bracket: (^_^;). Leave the brackets off for ^_^; or add a second semicolon when things get worse. The Keyboard only chip shows all 25 that need nothing else.

What does m(_ _)m mean?

A bow with both hands on the floor. Wikipedia's list of emoticons gives m(_ _)m as a kowtow for respect or a dogeza for apology. The one here, m(_ _;)m, adds a semicolon, so the apology is sweating as well.

All 90 nervous kaomoji

Smiling through it 18

  • (^.^;) Dot mouth, tiny and worried
  • (^^;) No mouth, one drop
  • (^_^") Quotation mark for two small drops
  • (^_^') Apostrophe for a small drop
  • (^_^;) The plain nervous smile, one drop
  • (^_^;;) Two drops, it is getting worse
  • (^▽^;) Open grin that went on too long
  • (^◇^;) Diamond mouth, stiff laugh
  • (^皿^;) Grin through gritted teeth
  • (^~^;) Wavy mouth, not sure about this
  • (´∀`;) Laughing it off, drop by the ear
  • (•‿•;) Bullet eyes, small smile, one drop
  • (⁰▿⁰;) Tiny raised zeros for eyes
  • (⌒_⌒;) Arched eyes, polite panic
  • (;^ω^) Drop first, soft w mouth
  • (;・∀・) Drop first, grin stuck in place
  • (^_^;) Every character fullwidth
  • ( ̄▽ ̄;) Flat eyes, forced grin
Show all 90 nervous kaomoji (72 more)

Blank stare, one drop 19

  • (-.-;) Flat eyes, dot mouth
  • (-_-;) Flat eyes, one drop, says nothing
  • (._.;) Looking at the floor
  • (=_=;) Equals signs for eyes, enduring it
  • (~_~;) Tilde eyes, worn down by it
  • (¬_¬;) Looking away, hoping nobody asks
  • (´・ω・`;) Worried brows, one drop
  • (•_•;) Bullet eyes, frozen
  • (・.・;) Dot eyes, dot mouth
  • (・_・;) Dot eyes, staring, one drop
  • (・_・;)? One drop and a question
  • (・ω・;) Soft w mouth, one drop
  • (・・;) Dot eyes and no mouth at all
  • (ーー;) Two long sound marks for eyes
  • (ㆆ_ㆆ;) Hooded eyes, suspicious and sweating. Borrows ㆆ from Hangul.
  • (;一_一) The kanji for one, twice, as narrowed eyes
  • ( ̄_ ̄;) Macron eyes, keeping quiet
  • (o_o;) Round letter eyes, frozen
  • (ó_ò;) Letter o eyes under worried accents

Wide eyes, wobbly mouths 17

  • (>_<;) Eyes squeezed shut, one drop
  • (>﹏<;) Eyes squeezed shut, bracing
  • (°_°;) Degree signs for eyes, frozen stiff
  • (°△°;) Triangle mouth, alarmed
  • (ʘ_ʘ;) Eyes made of a click consonant. Borrows ʘ from IPA Extensions.
  • (⊙_⊙;) Circled dots for eyes, staring
  • (⊙﹏⊙;) Wobbly mouth, eyes wide
  • (◎_◎;) Bullseye eyes, one drop
  • (⚆_⚆;) Both eyes darting to the right
  • (・﹏・;) Wobbly mouth, dot eyes
  • (;゚Д゚) Drop first, mouth wide open
  • (; ̄Д ̄) Flat eyes, jaw hanging open
  • (゚ロ゚;) Square katakana mouth, aghast
  • Σ(°△°;) A jolt: capital sigma for the shock
  • Σ( ̄□ ̄;) Jolt, square mouth, flat eyes
  • (0_0;) Zeros for eyes, one drop
  • (°o°;) Round mouth, caught out

Shaking, flailing, running 9

  • (((-_-;))) Flat eyes, shaking anyway
  • (((^_^;))) Still smiling, visibly shaking
  • (((⊙﹏⊙;))) Wide eyes, wobbly mouth, shaking
  • (((;゚Д゚))) Three brackets a side, shaking all over
  • ((;・_・)) Two brackets a side, a small shiver
  • (/;°ロ°)/ Arms up, looking right for a way out
  • ε=ε=┌(;・_・)┘ Running off, two puffs of dust behind
  • ヽ(;゚Д゚)ノ Both arms flailing, mouth open
  • \(°ロ°;\) Arms up, looking left for a way out

Wiping, scratching, bowing 8

  • (^^;ゞ Head scratch, no closing bracket
  • (^_^;)ゞ Hand to the back of the head
  • (;-人-) Palms together, waiting for the result
  • (;>人<) Eyes shut, palms pressed together
  • σ(^_^;) Pointing at itself: who, me
  • (;^_^A Capital A for a hand wiping the brow
  • f(^_^;) Letter f for a finger scratching the cheek
  • m(_ _;)m Deep bow, hands on the floor, one drop

With a Japanese word 12

  • (((;゚Д゚))) ガクガク Gakugaku, trembling with fear or cold
  • ((;-_-)) ブルブル Buruburu, with shivers
  • (-_-;) 冷や汗 Hiyaase, cold sweat
  • (^_^;) 汗 The kanji for sweat, said out loud
  • (°_°;) どきどき Dokidoki in hiragana, eyes wide
  • (・_・;) ひやひや Hiyahiya, nervously
  • (・_・;) ソワソワ Sowasowa, fidgety
  • (;°_°) ビクビク Bikubiku, trembling
  • (;´・ω・) ハラハラ Harahara, feeling uneasy
  • (;・_・) ドキドキ Dokidoki, with a racing heart
  • (;・_・) 緊張 Kinchō, nerves
  • ヽ(;´Д`)ノ オロオロ Orooro, flustered, in a panic

No brackets 7

  • -_-; Flat eyes and a drop, no brackets
  • -_-;; Flat eyes, two drops, no brackets
  • >_<; Squeezed eyes and a drop, no brackets
  • ^^; Two carets and a drop, nothing else
  • ^_^' Smile and an apostrophe, no brackets
  • ^_^; Smile and a drop, no brackets
  • o_o; Round eyes and a drop, no brackets

How this list was compiled: Built by script on 2026-09-19, not typed into the page by hand. The 90 entries are this site's own selection and arrangement: each was put together for this page from the parts a kaomoji is made of (brackets, eyes, a mouth, a sweat drop, extra brackets for shaking). Some are forms in common use that nobody owns. Wikipedia's article Kaomoji (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaomoji, read 2026-09-19) records (-_-;) as a generic emoticon for nervousness, the semicolon standing for a sweat drop, and says a quotation mark, an apostrophe or a semicolon can be added to a face in the same way; its List of emoticons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons, read 2026-09-19) gives (^_^;), (-_-;), (~_~;), (・.・;), (・_・;), (・・;), ^^; and ^_^; for nervous or embarrassed, (ーー;) for worried, and m(_ _)m for a bow of apology. The labels, groups and order are our own. The Japanese words come from Wiktionary, each entry read 2026-09-19: dokidoki, with a racing heart (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/どきどき); gakugaku, trembling with fear or cold (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/がくがく); buruburu, tremblingly, with shivers (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ぶるぶる); harahara, feeling uneasy (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/はらはら); sowasowa, nervous, uneasy, fidgety (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/そわそわ); bikubiku, trembling (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/びくびく); orooro, flustered, in a panic (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/おろおろ); hiyahiya, nervously, uneasily (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/冷や冷や); hiyaase, cold sweat (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/冷や汗); ase, sweat (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/汗); kinchō, mental strain, nervousness (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/緊張). Every character of every entry was looked up in UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), and must be an assigned, visible character. Emoji are left out, the sweat droplets included. The drop is Semicolon (U+003B) in 67 entries and Fullwidth semicolon (U+FF1B) in 20. "Borrows" under an entry names each character from outside the blocks of punctuation, common symbols and Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Japanese letters, with its script from Scripts.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Scripts.txt) or, for a Latin or common character, its block from Blocks.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Blocks.txt). "Is on the emoji list" names each character that has the Emoji property in emoji-data.txt, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-data.txt). "Short" means 6 code points or fewer, spaces counted. "Keyboard only" means every character is printable ASCII. Nothing here says how any one device draws a face. Licence: own work