Symbol for strength

Everyday symbols of strength

Online, the flexed arm 💪 is the default way to say “be strong” or “you’ve got this”. It works for physical strength at the gym and for emotional strength when someone is going through a hard time. The mechanical arm 🦾 was added in 2019 for prosthetics and accessibility, and many people also use it to mean superhuman effort.

The high-voltage sign ⚡ suggests energy and power rather than endurance. It has its own page among the lightning bolt symbols.

Animals of strength

The lion has stood for courage and strength since ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. It appears on countless coats of arms, and in the Bible Judah is called a lion. The ox and the bull stand for steady, patient strength: they pulled ploughs for thousands of years, and in the Chinese zodiac the Ox represents diligence and endurance. You can find more animals in the animal symbols collection.

The oak tree and Celtic knots

Oak wood is hard and oak trees live for centuries, so many European cultures treated the oak as a symbol of strength and endurance. The Celtic Dara knot, a popular tattoo design, is named after the Irish word for oak (doire). It is a drawing, not a Unicode character, so the closest thing you can paste into text is the tree 🌳.

力 and the Uruz rune

力 means strength or power. It is pronounced lì in Chinese and chikara or ryoku in Japanese, and it appears in everyday words such as 能力 (ability). Its shape comes from an old drawing of a ploughing arm or tool. See more meaningful characters in the Japanese symbols collection.

ᚢ is the Uruz rune from the runic alphabets of early Germanic peoples. The medieval rune poems tie it to the aurochs, a huge wild ox. Modern readings of runes link it to raw strength, but that meaning is a modern interpretation rather than something the historical sources state.

Strength and safety often go together; see our symbols for protection.