Symbol names and meanings
Every mark has a name — and this is the page that answers, in one place, the questions people actually type: what is this symbol called? what do you call this symbol? what does this symbol mean? what is that symbol called? If you arrived asking what is this symbol — a shape on your keyboard, in a document, on a sign — find it in the tables below: each row gives the symbol name, its symbol meaning, and where it is used. The meaning for this symbol you are hunting is one scroll away; and for every mark, the meaning for symbols of its family sits beside it, because meanings and symbols are easiest to learn together.
Start with the twelve marks people ask about most — each card also copies the symbol:
Punctuation and text symbols — names and meanings
These are the special symbols names lists are made of: the keyboard’s second shift-layer and the printer’s classics. Together with the maths table, this answers most of what the symbols on a page are called — the special characters symbols names in plain English (every symbol name in english below, with the formal name where one exists). If you have ever wondered what is the meaning of symbol § or ¶, this is your table — it is also the text characters meaning reference for editors and students:
| Symbol | Name | Meaning / used for |
|---|---|---|
| & | Ampersand | A written “and” — a ligature of the Latin letters e and t; its name is a slur of “and per se and”. |
| @ | At sign | Email addresses and social handles; on invoices it once meant “at the rate of”. |
| # | Hash, pound sign, number sign, octothorpe | Hashtags, numbers (#1), and the pound key on phone keypads. |
| § | Section sign | Marks a section of a legal or formal document: “see § 4”. |
| ¶ | Pilcrow | The paragraph mark — shows where a paragraph begins; also Word’s formatting-marks symbol. |
| † | Dagger (obelus) | Points to a footnote; a second footnote takes the double dagger ‡. |
| ‡ | Double dagger | The second footnote marker, after the dagger. |
| • | Bullet | Introduces list items and separates short phrases. |
| · | Interpunct / middle dot | Separates words or syllables; a multiplication dot in some countries. |
| — | Em dash | The long dash — breaks, asides and interruptions in a sentence. |
| – | En dash | The range dash: pages 10–20, the 9–5 shift. |
| / | Slash, stroke, solidus | “Or / per / divided by” — web addresses, dates, fractions (3/4). |
| \ | Backslash | Computing paths (C:\files) and escape characters in code. |
| | | Vertical bar / pipe | Separates options; in computing it “pipes” one command into another. |
| ~ | Tilde | “Approximately” (~50), Spanish/Portuguese nasal sounds, home folders in computing. |
| ^ | Caret | Marks an insertion in proofreading; exponent in plain text (2^3) and the Ctrl key’s symbol. |
| _ | Underscore / low line | Fills blanks, joins words_in_file_names, and underlines by hand. |
| © | Copyright sign | “This work is protected” — the creator claims copyright in it. |
| ® | Registered trademark | The mark is a legally registered trademark (not just claimed). |
| ™ | Trademark sign | “We claim this as our mark” — no registration implied. |
| % | Percent sign | Per hundred: 50% is half. Its sibling ‰ is per mille (per thousand). |
| ° | Degree sign | Temperatures (25°C), angles (90°) and map coordinates. |
Maths symbols — names and meanings
Every symbol name in maths in this table is the standard classroom name; the collection page behind each family carries the copyable grids.
| Symbol | Name | Meaning / used for |
|---|---|---|
| + | Plus sign | Addition; also “positive”. |
| − | Minus sign | Subtraction and negative numbers — a true minus is longer than a hyphen. |
| × | Multiplication sign | Times (3 × 4); also dimensions (3 × 2 m) and “by” in sizes. |
| ÷ | Division sign (obelus) | Divided by — common on calculators and in school maths, rare in higher maths. |
| = | Equals sign | The two sides have the same value; invented by Robert Recorde in 1557. |
| ≠ | Not equal sign | The two sides are different — an equals sign with a slash of denial. |
| ± | Plus-minus sign | A value with a tolerance: 10 ± 1 means between 9 and 11. |
| √ | Radical / square root | The root of a number: √9 = 3. Its long top bar is the vinculum. |
| ∞ | Infinity sign (lemniscate) | Endlessness; a sideways figure-eight introduced by John Wallis in 1655. |
| π | Pi | The circle constant ≈ 3.14159 — circumference divided by diameter. |
| ∑ | Summation (sigma) | Add up a whole series of values; capital Greek sigma doing maths work. |
| ≈ | Approximately equal | “About the same as” — 9.8 ≈ 10. |
| ≤ ≥ | Less/greater than or equal | Comparison with equality allowed: x ≤ 5 means x is at most 5. |
| ∠ | Angle sign | Marks an angle in geometry: ∠ABC. |
Currency symbols — names and meanings
| Symbol | Name | Meaning / used for |
|---|---|---|
| $ | Dollar sign | US dollar and many other “dollar/peso” currencies; one or two strokes by country. |
| € | Euro sign | The euro — designed to suggest an E crossed by the two lines of stability. |
| £ | Pound sign | Pound sterling — a decorative capital L for the Latin libra (pound). |
| ¥ | Yen / yuan sign | Japan’s yen and China’s yuan share the sign; the letter Y crossed. |
| ₹ | Indian rupee sign | Adopted in 2010: Devanagari र + Roman R under twin lines of equality. |
| ¢ | Cent sign | One hundredth of a dollar — written AFTER the amount: 99¢. |
Everyday signs and decorative symbols
Beyond keyboard marks live the cool symbols and meanings people decorate profiles with — the cool symbols with meaning rather than just looks. Lists of cool symbols and their meanings usually start here:
| Symbol | Name | Meaning / used for |
|---|---|---|
| ★ | Star | Ratings, favourites and quality: a five-star review. |
| ♡ ♥ | Heart suit / hearts | Love and likes; the outline ♡ and filled ♥ are two weights of one idea. |
| ✓ | Check mark / tick | Done, correct, approved — the universal yes. |
| ✗ | Ballot X / cross mark | Wrong, no, rejected — the check mark’s partner. |
| ☮ | Peace symbol | Designed in 1958 from the semaphore letters N and D (nuclear disarmament). |
| ♻ | Recycling symbol | Recyclable material; three chasing arrows designed in 1970. |
| ⚠ | Warning sign | Caution — a hazard, condition or rule ahead. |
| ☯ | Yin yang | Balance of opposites in Chinese philosophy (taijitu). |
| ✝ | Latin cross | Christianity; its variants (☦ ☨) serve other churches and uses. |
| ☪ | Star and crescent | Widely associated with Islam and with several national flags. |
| ⚓ | Anchor | The sea, navies and stability — “anchored” as a metaphor. |
| ⌛ | Hourglass | Time passing; “please wait” in software. |
What are “special symbols”, exactly?
When people ask what are special symbols — or what are the special symbols on a form — they mean everything that is not a letter or a digit: punctuation, currency signs, maths operators and pictorial marks. Asked another way — what do you mean by special symbols in a password field? — the answer is the same set: the characters on your keyboard that are neither A–Z nor 0–9, plus the wider Unicode world beyond the keyboard. And what are special characters and symbols in computing? Characters stored as codes (Unicode code points) so every device can show the same mark — which is why the tables on this page carry names a computer can agree on. If a registration form has ever made you ask what is special symbol required here, it wants at least one character from the punctuation table above.
Symbol meaning in Hindi
For readers who searched symbol meaning in hindi: the Hindi word for a symbol is प्रतीक (pratīk), and a sign or mark is चिह्न (chihn). The names in these tables are the English and international names — § is “section sign” everywhere — but the meanings translate directly: ✓ means सही / पूरा हुआ (correct / done), ★ is a rating star (तारा), and ₹ is India’s own sign, designed in India in 2010.
How to look up a symbol you cannot type
Describe it by shape and family: “the S-shaped paragraph mark” finds §’s family here; “a special symbol called an interrobang” (‽, the ?! mark) is findable by its story even when its name escapes you. Then copy the real character from the owning collection instead of typing a look-alike — the cool text symbols names differ from their plain-keyboard twins (the true minus − is not the hyphen -), and the text symbols letters meanings change with the exact character you paste. People asking for all special symbols and its name in one list — special symbols and their names side by side — are usually best served by this page’s tables plus the category collections below.
Copy the collections behind this guide
Every family above has a full copy-and-paste collection on this site: the punctuation symbols hub, the math symbols, the currency symbols, and the ampersand symbol page for the & story in full. The hazard family has its own page too: the warning symbols. The legal marks live on the copyright and trademark symbols page.
Frequently asked questions
What is this symbol called?
Find its shape in the tables above — punctuation first (most mystery marks live there), then maths, currency and everyday signs. Each row gives the symbol name in English and its meaning. If it is a letter-like mark, check the punctuation table’s formal names (¶ pilcrow, § section sign, † dagger).
What’s the meaning of this symbol §?
§ is the section sign: it refers to a numbered section of a document — “see § 12” means “see section 12”. Doubled (§§) it means sections, plural. When you ask “what’s the meaning of this symbol” about its neighbour ¶, the answer is the paragraph mark — it does the same job for paragraphs that § does for sections.
Is there one list for every symbol and its meaning?
Readers phrase the question a dozen ways — “what the meaning of this symbol” is one of the commonest — and this page is the answer: it is that list for the marks people ask about most: 50+ symbols and meanings across punctuation, maths, currency and everyday signs, each with its name. Families with hundreds of variants (arrows, stars, hearts) live in their own collections, linked from the guide.
What is the meaning of symbol in simple words?
A symbol is a picture or mark that stands for an idea bigger than itself: ✓ stands for “correct”, ★ for quality, ∞ for “without end”. The meaning lives in shared agreement — which is why the same shape (a cross, a star) can carry different meanings in different cultures and contexts.
Where can I copy these symbols?
The twelve most-asked marks copy directly from the cards at the top of this page. For whole families, use the linked collections — every symbol there copies in one click, including the ones your keyboard cannot type.
What is a symbol called when it replaces a word?
Several names apply by family: & is a ligature-born logogram (one mark, one word: “and”); marks like % and ° began as abbreviations. The general word for a symbol standing for a whole word is logogram — Chinese characters are the famous large-scale example.
Seen a symbol you cannot name? Paste it into our symbol identifier to get its name, meaning, Unicode codepoint and HTML entity in one step.