✝

Text style	Emoji style
✝︎	✝️
Text style is forced with ⟨︎⟩ and emoji style with ⟨️⟩.
✝ U+271D, ✝ LATIN CROSS ← ✜ [U+271C] Dingbats ✞ → [U+271E]

Character variations

🕇 U+1F547, 🕇 HEAVY LATIN CROSS ← 🕆 [U+1F546] Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs 🕈 → [U+1F548]

🕆 U+1F546, 🕆 WHITE LATIN CROSS ← 🕅 [U+1F545] Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs 🕇 → [U+1F547]

✟ U+271F, ✟ OUTLINED LATIN CROSS ← ✞ [U+271E] Dingbats ✠ → [U+2720]

✞ U+271E, ✞ SHADOWED WHITE LATIN CROSS ← ✝ [U+271D] Dingbats ✟ → [U+271F]

Translingual

Symbol origin 1

One of several design variations of a gibbet, an instrument of execution, used in Ancient Rome; the horizontal crossbeam was used to tie the victim's hands and arms and stretch them outwards.

Etymology

The Christianity sense (sense 1) was first used by early Christians in the 1st century AD; the Latin cross design represents the cross upon which Jesus was crucified around AD 33 (see also cruxifiction of Jesus on WikipediaWikipedia ). It was popularised as a universal symbol for Christianity after circa AD 350, overtaking symbols like the ichthys.

The death senses (sense 2) might be derived from the cross as a method of execution in the form of crucifixion, while the grave subsense (sense 2.1) is probably derived from the common use of a Latin cross as a grave marker to indicate that the buried individual adhered to Christianity: reinterpreted as a generic symbol of a grave.

The fleuron sense (sense 3) is derived from sense 1.

Description

Depiction of a Latin cross: a cross consisting of a vertical bar intersected by a shorter horizontal one above its midpoint.

Symbol

✝ (English symbol name Latin cross or Christian cross)

The Vic Cathedral in Catalonia, Spain, with a Christian cross (sense 1.2) atop it

Four unmarked graves (sense 2.1) in France, 1914

2. Represents Christianity; an aspect thereof, such as Christendom, the Church, faith, prayer, blessings, the Bible, clergy, God or Jesus.
   2. (in stricter terms) Represents Western Christianity, especially Catholicism and certain denominations of Protestantism.
   4. Denotes a Christian church, including an abbey or cathedral.
   5. Indicates one's commitment to the Christian faith; belief in, or devotion to, Christianity; trust in God; a Christian.
   6. Of a book cover or icon, indicates an edition or translation of the Bible; the Bible.
   7. (Christianity) The crucifixion of Jesus on the cross; also, His subsequent resurrection; the Passion; eternal life.
   8. (Internet slang) Indicates a passage or verse from the Bible.
4. Senses relating to death:
   2. Indicates the site of a burial or monument to someone who has died; a grave marker or memorial.
   3. Alternative form of † (“died, dead”).
   4. (sometimes Internet slang) Relating to the deceased or death, generally; died, dead, dying; rest in peace; a graveyard, mass burial or mausoleum.
6. A decorative fleuron, used especially in Christian literature.
7. (literal) A cross.
8. (Internet slang, as an emoji) Holy.

   ✝️🐄

   Holy cow!

Usage notes

• Predated by several visually similar yet unrelated symbols such as the Etruscan letter 𐌕 (t, “te”) and the Egyptian symbol ankh (𓋹).
• (Sense 1.1): used especially in the context of being distinguished from other denominations of Christianity, like Eastern Orthodoxy—which is often represented by ☦.

Symbol origin 2

A stylisation, but compare the Etruscan letter 𐌕 (t, “te”).

Etymology

The emoji ✝ (representing a Latin cross) looks similar to the letter T.

Letter

✝

2. Alternative form of T (“twentieth letter of the English alphabet”), used in some fonts or (Internet slang, sometimes humorous) as an emoji, stylistically.