Grawlix (also called “obscenicon” or “symbol swearing”) refers to the use of typographical symbols in place of an obscenity (e.g., “$%@!”).

Grawlix is frequently used in comic strips to indicate that a character is thinking or saying a swear word. It’s also used on social media platforms as a way to obscure inappropriate language. Grawlix can be used by itself or as part of a sentence.

Examples: Grawlix

“#$@!”

“Where the %@#! is my car? I parked it right here.”

“I hate this @&#$?&! song.”

How is grawlix used?

Grawlix is a string of typographical symbols, most commonly ampersands (“&”), at signs (“@”), exclamation points (“!”), question marks (“?”), percentage symbols (“%”), hash or pound symbols (“#”), and dollar signs (“$”). These symbols are used in no particular order.

Because grawlix consists solely of symbols, it’s only ever written and cannot be used in spoken communication. However, in speech, grawlix is usually represented by the word “bleep” (in reference to the electric sound commonly used to censor expletives and sensitive information in recorded audio).

Grawlix should be avoided in formal contexts like academic writing. However, it’s sometimes used in informal contexts, such as text messages (usually in the form of an emoji depicting an angry face with the mouth obscured by typographical symbols).

Examples: Grawlix in text messages

Person A: Hey, I forgot to water your plants while you were away. Sorry.

Person B: