We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
A short ribbon folded into a loop, worn to signal support for a cause.
Also known as: Ribbon symbol, Cause ribbon
A length of ribbon folded so its ends cross and hang below a loop, worn on the chest. The form is generic and the colour carries the cause — which is why the same shape stands for dozens of unrelated campaigns and why several colours are claimed by more than one.
A loop of ribbon worn to show support for a cause or in remembrance. The shape is common to all of them; the colour identifies which.
The modern practice is generally traced to the yellow ribbons worn in the United States in the early 1990s for hostages and deployed troops, from which the form spread rapidly to health and social causes.
Colours are not administered by anyone. Several are claimed by more than one cause, and there is no register, so a ribbon's meaning outside the best-known few is genuinely ambiguous.
A narrow strip of ribbon folded so that it forms a closed loop at the top with the two ends crossing below and hanging apart.
The red ribbon was the first health campaign to use the form and set the pattern the others followed.
One form, many colours; the pink ribbon is the best-known of them.