Special characters
Use these terms to describe the special characters shown.
| Character | Name |
|---|---|
´ |
acute accent (not accent acute) |
& |
|
< > |
angle brackets |
’ |
apostrophe (publishing character) |
' |
apostrophe (customer-typed text) |
* |
asterisk It's OK to use star to refer to the key on a phone keypad. |
@ |
at sign |
\ |
backslash |
{ } |
braces (not curly brackets) |
[ ] |
brackets |
^ |
caret, circumflex (not accent circumflex) |
¢ |
cent sign |
« » |
chevrons, opening and closing Microsoft term, seldom used, especially in documentation. Also referred to as merge field characters in Word. |
© |
copyright symbol |
† |
dagger |
° |
degree symbol |
÷ |
division sign |
$ |
dollar sign |
[[ ]] |
double brackets |
… |
ellipsis (singular), ellipses (plural) Don't add space between ellipsis points. |
— |
em dash |
– |
en dash |
= |
equal sign (not equals sign) |
€ |
euro symbol |
! |
exclamation point (not exclamation mark) |
` |
grave accent (not accent grave) |
| > | greater than sign If used in conjunction with the less than sign to enclose a character string such as an HTML or XML tag, right angle bracket is OK. |
≥ |
greater than or equal to sign |
- |
hyphen |
" |
inch mark |
| < | less than sign If used in conjunction with the greater than sign to enclose a character string such as an HTML or XML tag, left angle bracket is OK. |
≤ |
less than or equal to sign |
– |
minus sign (use en dash) |
× |
multiplication sign Use * instead if necessary to match software. |
≠ |
not equal to |
# |
number sign or hashtag In general, use number sign instead of pound sign to refer to the # symbol. In social media, use hashtag. Use pound key when referring to the phone keypad button. |
¶ |
paragraph mark |
( ) |
parentheses (plural), opening or closing parenthesis (singular) |
% |
percent |
π |
pi |
| |
pipe, vertical bar, or OR logical operator |
+ |
|
± |
plus or minus sign |
? |
question mark |
“ ” |
quotation marks (not quotes or quote marks) Curly quotation marks is OK if necessary to distinguish from straight quotation marks. |
" " |
straight quotation marks (not quotes or quote marks) |
‘ ’ |
single quotation marks or single curly quotation marks (not quotes or quote marks) |
' ' |
single straight quotation marks (not quotes or quote marks) |
® |
registered trademark symbol |
§ |
section |
/ |
slash (not virgule) |
~ |
tilde Don't use in place of about or approximately. |
™ |
trademark symbol |
_ |
underscore |