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Math Symbols
Tap any symbol to copy it. 43 text symbols and 5 emoji.
Text symbols
Emoji
A text symbol takes the colour and size of the text around it. An emoji renders in colour at emoji size and changes the line height of whatever field it sits in. For a name or a bio line, the text symbols above almost always behave better.
People look for these under several names — math symbols, mathematical symbols — and mean the same characters each time. There is no agreed term, because these were never named as a group by anyone.
Where these symbols come from
These are operators, not decorations, and most predate computing by centuries: √ dates to 1525, ∑ to Euler in the 18th century. Unicode encodes them so that mathematics can be written in plain text without an equation editor.
What people use them for
The practical use is writing maths where no equation editor exists — a chat message, a code comment, a forum post, a spreadsheet label. The minus sign − is worth knowing separately: it is a different character from the hyphen - and aligns correctly with digits.
How to copy math symbols
- Tap or click the symbol you want. It goes straight to your clipboard — no selecting, no long press.
- Paste it wherever you need it: a bio, a message, a document, a spreadsheet.
- If it arrives in colour when you wanted it plain, you copied from the emoji row. Use the text symbols above instead.
Known problems
The true minus −, the hyphen - and the en dash – look nearly identical but are three different characters. Pasting the wrong one into a spreadsheet or a code editor produces an error that is very hard to see.
These are not fonts, they are separate Unicode characters. Screen readers often read them wrong or skip them entirely. What that means.
Common questions
- What is the difference between math symbols and emoji?
- A text symbol takes the colour and size of the text around it, so it sits inside a name or a sentence without changing the line height. An emoji renders in colour at emoji size regardless of the surrounding text. They are different characters, not two versions of one — which is why the two groups above are listed separately.
- How do I copy a symbol on my phone?
- Tap it. Every symbol on this page copies to your clipboard on a single tap, with no selection or long press needed. Nothing is sent anywhere — the copying happens in your browser.
- Why does a symbol show as an empty rectangle?
- The font on that device does not cover the character. There is no fallback: for a reader whose font lacks it, the symbol is simply missing. Older Android builds and minimal desktop setups are where this happens most.