Are you looking for the perfect way to tell someone that they — or something they said, or a picture they posted — are really, terribly, unbearably, cute? Do you need a shortcut to show others that you mean whatever you just said in a cute way? "UwU" could be the perfect "word" choice for you, whether you're in a multiplayer video game, on social media, or messaging someone on their phone.
Discover where UwU came from, and what exactly it means, below.
Meaning
Not everyone agrees on whether "UwU" (also capitalized as "uWu", "UWU" or "uwu", and, when it appears at the beginning of a sentence, "Uwu") is an emoticon or a word. Either way, UwU represents a cute face — the letters U that appear in this online slang are meant to be half-closed eyes, while the W is the mouth.
While UwU typically means "aaaw, that's cute", it can also be used ironically or even simply to irritate or taunt people.
An an aside, "uwu" (in lowercase letters) is the most common variation owing to reasons of laziness on the part of those who use it.
Example Usage
Wondering how you can use UwU? Take a look at these examples:
- ILY <3 cutie, uwu!
- Thanks for buying my merchandise, uwu!
- (Ironically) Just low-key getting an army ready to kill u, uwu.
- Come see my new anime skin, Minecraft friends, uwu.
- I did see that video of all the kittens, so cute, uwu.
Origin
Interestingly, UwU is one of the few internet slang terms that has made it all the way to the mainstream, including earning itself entries on not only the Urban Dictionary, but also Dictionary.com. The face, word, or emoticon took a long journey to reach this level of fame, though.
The first confirmed use — which is unlikely to be the first actual use — of UwU dates back to 2005, when DaakuKitsune, writing a Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction called Genie of the Puzzle, added the face to a message in which they apologized for taking so long to upload a new text. The message read: "Feel free to throw squids and fish at me. UwU I deserve it, you know".
UwU was first defined on Urban Dictionary, as a smiley face signifying extreme happiness, in 2012. It slowly spread throughout the internet, and can be seen on Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Tumblr, and in many multiplayer video games.
UwU has been associated with anime culture, the furry fandom, but at this point, even Twitter's official Twitter account has used the word/emoticon, indicating that UwU has gone mainstream.
In a related phenomenon called "UwU speech", people replace as many letter as they can with the letter W to sound cuter, such as "hewwo" instead of "hello", and "pwecious" instead of "precious".
Words Similar to UwU
- "OwO" (also capitalized as "owo" and "OWO") is UwU's closest relative. This face features open and slightly shocked eyes, and is also associated with anime fandoms.
- "TwT" is a crying cute face, which is much less commonly used.
What Is the Correct Word?
"UwU" is the most faithful representation of the type of face that the word signifies, but it is by far most common to see "uwu", using lowercase letters.
Ways People May Say Great UwU Incorrectly
Some people might be under the impression that UwU is synonymous with the smiley face ":)". This is not the case. The more common smiley face can be used to convey happiness or friendliness in any context, while UwU is specifically used to indicate that something is extremely cute.
Acceptable Ways to Say UWU
You can use the emoticon or word UwU to add a few layers of cuteness to any online message that you send. UwU is often used to tell others that you think what they're doing or saying or sending you is terribly cute, but you can also deploy a well-placed UwU to make others think that you are extra cute. If you're describing a very cute experience you had, you could also say that you had an "UwU moment".