Bow Kaomoji
Copy bow kaomoji and Japanese bowing text faces like m(_ _)m for apologies, thank-you messages, dogeza faces, and respectful replies in chats and bios.
Popular bow kaomoji
Short, readable faces are usually the best fit for bios, usernames, and chat replies.
Bow Kaomoji copy and paste
82 text faces shown in All.
Bow Kaomoji ASCII art
Multi-line text art. Paste into a monospace field so the alignment survives.
Apologizing in chat
m(_ _)m and its variants are the fastest way to signal a sincere sorry without writing a full sentence.
Saying thank you
The same bowing shape doubles as gratitude. Context, not the face itself, decides whether it reads as sorry or thanks.
Discord and forum replies
Short bows like orz or OTL fit inline with a message and read as a quick, self-deprecating acknowledgment.
Formal or respectful messages
Longer dogeza-style faces such as ●|￣|＿ signal a deeper, more theatrical bow for exaggerated apologies or jokes.
How to use bow kaomoji
Apologizing in chat
- Lead with m(_ _)m for a quick, sincere sorry that reads naturally in any chat
- Use ＜(。_。)＞ or <(_ _)> if you want a slightly softer, rounder look
- Escalate to (＞人＜) when the apology needs to show visible discomfort
Saying thank you
- The same m(_ _)m works for gratitude; the surrounding words set the tone
- Pair it with 人(_ _*) for a warmer, more personal thank-you
- Keep it short in fast-moving chats; longer bows feel out of place there
Joking about defeat or exhaustion
- orz and OTL are the go-to faces for exaggerated, comic despair
- Use ●|￣|＿ for a full dogeza when the joke calls for groveling
- These read as humor, not sincerity, so save them for casual contexts
Formal or respectful replies
- m(＿＿)m with full-width underscores looks slightly more formal on screen
- <(．＿．)> works well when addressing someone you don't know well
- Avoid emoji-heavy bows like 🙇♀️✨🙏 in formal settings; plain text kaomoji read as more deliberate
Bow Kaomoji message templates
Copy a whole message for chats, captions, and comments.
Bow Kaomoji meanings
m(_ _)m
The standard bowing face: two arms (m) framing a lowered head (_ _). The most recognizable bow kaomoji, equally at home apologizing or saying thanks.
m( _ _ )m
A wider, more spaced-out bow. The extra gap reads as a deeper, slower bow, useful when a plain m(_ _)m feels too casual.
<(_ _)>
An angle-bracket bow using < and > instead of m. Functionally identical to m(_ _)m, popular on sites that avoid the letter m in faces.
orz
A minimalist kneeling figure read sideways: o is the head, r the arms, z the folded legs. Reads as defeat, exasperation, or a self-deprecating shrug rather than a formal apology.
OTL
A capital-letter cousin of orz with the same kneeling silhouette. Slightly more dramatic looking, often used for comic despair.
●|￣|＿
A dogeza-style face: a head (●) pressed flat against the floor. This is the most exaggerated bow in the set, reserved for jokes about begging forgiveness.
＿|￣|●
The mirrored dogeza pose. Interchangeable with ●|￣|＿; pick whichever direction matches the flow of your sentence.
(*_ _)人
A bow built around the person radical 人, which reads as praying or clasped hands. Common for heartfelt apologies rather than casual ones.
人(_ _*)
The mirror image of (*_ _)人. Both versions are used interchangeably depending on which side of a sentence the face sits.
(＞人＜)
A scrunched, pained face paired with the same person radical. Reads as an apology delivered while wincing, more emotional than a plain bow.
(-人-)
A calmer, prayer-like variant. Softer than (＞人＜) and works well for a sincere, quiet sorry or a small favor request.
m(＿＿)m
A fuller-width version of the classic bow using full-width underscores. Renders slightly larger on screens that support full-width glyphs.
🙇♀️✨🙏
An emoji-based bow: the bowing person emoji paired with folded hands. Useful where Unicode kaomoji might not render, since emoji are near-universally supported.
(ToT)ゞ
A crying, saluting face. Combines an apology with visible distress, good for a bow that also says 'I feel terrible about this.'
Related kaomoji clusters
Planned clusters become real internal links after each English page is published.
Bow Kaomoji — background
Kaomoji are read upright, emoticons sideways
Western emoticons such as :-) developed on early ASCII systems where tilting your head was the cheapest way to see a face. Japanese users had access to a far larger character set through JIS encodings, so their faces never needed rotating. That single difference explains why kaomoji have eyes, cheeks, and arms while emoticons mostly have a mouth.
The brackets are borrowed from other alphabets
Characters that look purpose-built for kaomoji are usually loaned. Full-width punctuation, underscores, and the person radical 人 were never designed for faces; the community simply found shapes that read as arms, heads, and bows.
The bow behind m(_ _)m is a real gesture
In Japan, bowing communicates apology, gratitude, and respect all at once, with depth and duration signaling sincerity. m(_ _)m compresses that entire physical vocabulary into five characters, which is why the same face can mean both sorry and thank you depending on context.
orz started as a joke about a kneeling figure
orz spread online in the early 2000s as a sideways depiction of someone collapsed on all fours in despair. It predates most kaomoji conventions and uses plain ASCII, which is why it still renders identically on every device decades later.
Rare characters are why some faces break
A kaomoji renders only if the reader's device ships a font covering every character in it. Older Android builds omit large parts of Unicode, so heavily decorated faces collapse into empty boxes. Faces built from common punctuation, such as m(_ _)m or orz, have survived because they demand nothing unusual.
What does m(_ _)m mean?
m(_ _)m is a kaomoji of a person bowing: the two m's are outstretched arms and the underscores are a lowered head. It is used to apologize, say thank you, or show respect, similar to a real bow in Japanese culture.
Is bow kaomoji the same as an apology kaomoji?
Mostly yes. Bowing is the physical gesture behind both apologies and thanks in Japanese culture, so the same face like m(_ _)m or <(_ _)> covers both meanings depending on context.
What is orz supposed to look like?
orz reads sideways as a kneeling figure: o is the head, r the arms and back, z the legs. It represents someone collapsed on the ground, used for defeat, exhaustion, or exaggerated disappointment rather than a formal bow.
What is a dogeza kaomoji?
Dogeza is a full prostration bow, touching the forehead to the floor as an extreme apology. Faces like ●|￣|＿ and ＿|￣|● represent this pose and are used humorously to signal 'I am begging for forgiveness.'
How do I copy bow kaomoji?
Tap any face on this page and it copies to your clipboard as plain text. Paste it into a chat, email, comment, or bio the same way you would paste any other text.
Do bow kaomoji work on Discord and Instagram?
Yes. They are plain Unicode text, so they work anywhere text is accepted. Faces using only basic punctuation, such as m(_ _)m and orz, render correctly on virtually every device.
What is the difference between m(_ _)m and <(_ _)>?
Both represent the same bowing pose. m(_ _)m uses the letter m for arms, while <(_ _)> uses angle brackets. They are interchangeable; pick whichever fits the visual style of your message.
Can bow kaomoji be used to say thank you instead of sorry?
Yes. A bow in Japanese culture covers both gratitude and apology, so m(_ _)m after 'thank you' reads as a sincere bow of thanks, not an apology.
Why do some bow kaomoji use 人 instead of underscores?
人 is the Japanese character for 'person,' and faces like (*_ _)人 or (-人-) use it to suggest clasped or praying hands rather than a plain lowered head, giving the bow a more pleading or heartfelt tone.
How many bow kaomoji are on this page?
There are 84 curated faces, grouped into bowing faces, prostration faces, apology faces, and emoji reactions so you can find the right tone quickly.