Symbol Reference
One page per symbol — what it means, where it comes from, and how to type it.
One page per symbol: what it means, where it came from, and how to type it. These are reference pages rather than tutorials — short, factual, and honest about the places where a symbol's history is genuinely disputed.
Where a popular origin story is unverified, we say so rather than repeating it as fact.
What you'll learn
- What a symbol actually denotes, as distinct from how it is popularly used
- Where the shape came from, and where that history is uncertain
- How to type it on a standard keyboard layout
- Which visual variants exist and when each is appropriate
All pages in Symbol Reference (10)
Ampersand (&)The ampersand is a ligature of the Latin word et, meaning “and”.& ＆ ﹠ ⅋At Symbol (@)Once a commercial shorthand, now the anchor of every email address and handle.@ ＠ ﹫Asterisk (*)A star-shaped mark used for footnotes, emphasis and wildcards.* ＊ ∗ ✱ ✳ ❋ ⁎ ⁕Degree Symbol (°)Marks temperature, angles and geographic coordinates.° ℃ ℉ ∠ ′ ″Infinity Symbol (∞)The lemniscate, introduced to mathematics in 1655.∞ ♾ ∝Copyright Symbol (©)Marks a work as protected by copyright.© ® ™ ℠ ℗Bullet Point (•)The dot that opens a list item.• · ‣ ⁃ ◦ ▪ ▫ ● ○ ◘ ❖ ➤Arrow Symbol (→)Direction, flow and consequence.→ ← ↑ ↓ ⇒ ⇐ ⟶ ⟵ ➜ ➡ ↔ ⇄Check Mark (✓)The tick used to mark something done or correct.✓ ✔ ☑ ✅ 🗸 🗹Peace Symbol (☮)Designed in 1958 for the British nuclear disarmament movement.☮ ✌ ☯ 🕊
Common questions
Are these histories reliable?
They are as reliable as we can make them, and where a claim is contested we flag it instead of picking the neatest version. For scholarly work, go to primary sources rather than citing us.
Why does the same symbol have several forms?
Unicode encodes characters by meaning, not appearance, so a shape used for different purposes may exist several times over — plus fullwidth variants for CJK typesetting and turned forms used in logic.
How do I type these without copying?
Each page lists the keyboard route where a simple one exists. Many symbols have no direct key and copying is genuinely the practical option.