The three snowflakes in Unicode
Unicode has exactly three characters named after snowflakes, all in the Dingbats block, which is based on the classic Zapf Dingbats font: ❄︎ snowflake, ❅ tight trifoliate snowflake and ❆ heavy chevron snowflake. ❄︎ has six arms, just like a real snow crystal.
Only ❄︎ is also an emoji, so it can show as a light blue ❄️ on phones. ❅ and ❆ always stay plain text in your font color, which makes them handy when you want snow that never turns into an emoji.
What the snowflake symbol means
Beyond winter weather, ❄︎ is the usual sign for cold: you will find it on air conditioners, freezers and car climate controls. Winter tires carry a mountain with a snowflake to show they are rated for severe snow.
In posts and bios, snowflakes mean winter, the holidays, ski trips or simply a cool vibe. For snowmen, scarves and winter sports, see the winter symbols page, and for festive ideas, the Christmas symbols.
How to type a snowflake
In Microsoft Word, type 2744 and press Alt + X to get ❄︎. On Windows, press Windows + . and search for "snowflake"; on a Mac, press Control + Command + Space. Phone emoji keyboards also find it under "snowflake".
Need more than three kinds of flakes? Asterisks like ✻ and ❉ look like snow at small sizes, and you will find more of them on the asterisk symbol page. Mix sizes and add spaces for a gentle snowfall, like the borders above.
In a bio or username, one snowflake goes a long way: ❄︎ before and after a name, or ˚ ❄︎ ˚ as a small frame. Because ❅ and ❆ are text-only, they are a good choice wherever colorful emoji would look out of place.