🥦

Broccoli

BROK-uh-lee
Food & Drink Unicode 5.0 common

Meanings

1
Food · Vegetable Common

A green vegetable with a thick stalk and tightly clustered florets, used to represent healthy eating, nutrition, or plant-based diets.

Often used when discussing meals, diet choices, healthy eating habits, or expressing distaste for vegetables.

Made a great stir fry with 🥦 and tofu for dinner! 📋 Instagram food post
Trying to eat more 🥦 this year as part of my health goals. 📋 Health discussion on Twitter

Symbolizes health-consciousness and nutrition in digital communication, though also associated with childhood aversion to vegetables.

2
Slang · Cannabis Emerging

Slang representation of marijuana or cannabis, used as a visual substitute due to the similar appearance to cannabis buds.

Used in contexts where directly referencing cannabis might be inappropriate or to bypass content filters.

Chilling with some 🥦 tonight after a long week 📋 Social media post

Emerged as social media platforms increased moderation of drug-related content, providing users a coded visual reference.

Combos with 🥦

🥦🥕
Healthy eating, vegetables, or balanced diet.
Commonly used when discussing meal preparation or nutrition goals.
🥦💪
Health food providing strength or fitness benefits.
Popular in fitness communities to emphasize nutrition's role in physical performance.
🥦🤢
Dislike of broccoli or vegetables in general.
Often used humorously to express childhood aversion to eating vegetables.
🥦🔥
Smoking cannabis or marijuana.
Code for cannabis consumption, particularly in contexts where direct references are avoided.

Culture

Represents the health food movement and clean eating trends that gained prominence in the 2010s across Western cultures.

Often used in memes about generational divides in food preferences, with younger generations embracing vegetables their parents struggled to make them eat.

The emergence of broccoli as cannabis slang demonstrates how emoji develop secondary meanings when users need coded language to discuss sensitive topics.

United Kingdom Used similarly to the US, but with stronger connections to vegan and vegetarian movements.
United States Commonly used in health and wellness contexts, with the slang cannabis meaning particularly prevalent among younger users.
Gen_X: Used primarily in literal context for cooking and family meals, with less awareness of the slang meaning.
Gen_Z: Frequently used both for health content and as cannabis slang. Often appears in TikTok food trends and plant-based diet content.
Older: Limited usage, typically only in direct reference to actual broccoli in cooking or gardening contexts.
Millennials: Commonly used in meal prep posts, parenting content about feeding children vegetables, and fitness journeys.

History

2017

Added to Unicode 10.0 as part of expanded food emoji set.

Growing interest in representing healthy foods in digital communication.

2019

Began emerging as coded slang for cannabis in social media posts.

Increased content moderation forcing users to adopt visual euphemisms.