Special characters

Character

Name

´

accent acute

^

accent circumflex, caret

`

accent grave

&

ampersand (abbreviation for “and”)

< >

angle brackets (use in software documentation to show default value and bibliographic references to URLs)

’

apostrophe (also symbol for foot and second—angle)

≈

approximately equal to

*

asterisk (multiplication symbol in code)

@

at sign (abbreviation for “at the rate of”)

\

back slash or reverse solidus

{ }

braces (not curly brackets)

[ ]

brackets  (or square brackets)

¢

cent sign

« »

chevrons, opening and closing

©

copyright symbol

†

dagger

°

degree symbol

÷

division operator

$

dollar sign

∕

division or fraction slash (cf. slash mark)

[[ ]]

double brackets

…

ellipsis (s.) or ellipsis points, ellipses (pl.)

—

em dash (punctuation mark)

–

en dash (punctuation mark or negative or minus symbol)

=

equal sign (not equals sign)

≡

equivalent to

!

exclamation point (not exclamation mark or bang)

> 

greater than

≥

greater than or equal to

-

hyphen (punctuation mark)

"

inch mark or minute symbol (angle)

< 

less than

≤

less than or equal to

·

middle dot (SI multiplication operator)

–

minus (en dash)

×

multiplication sign (use * if necessary to match software)

≠

not equal to

#

number sign in most cases, but hash or pound (US) key when referring to the telephone

¶

paragraph mark or carriage return

( )

parentheses (pl), opening or closing parenthesis (s) (mathematical symbols or punctuation marks)

%

percent (SI symbol)

|

pipe, vertical bar, or the logical OR symbol

+

plus

±

plus or minus

?

question mark (punctuation mark)

“ ”

quotation marks (not quotes or quote marks)

‘ ’

single quotation marks

®

registered trademark symbol

§

section

Σ (∑)

sigma (sum)

/

slash mark or forward slash or solidus

~

tilde

™

trademark symbol

_

underscore