The keyboard is the way we use to enter or manipulate data or information, and it looks more or less like the one below:
Other than the letters (a to z) and numbers (0 – 9) on the keyboard, there are also many symbols for different purposes. Here is the full list of the symbols and their names.
| Order | Symbol | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ~ | Tilde |
| 2 | ` | Grave Accent |
| 3 | ! | Exclamation Mark, Ecphoneme |
| 4 | @ | At Sign |
| 5 | # | Number Sign, Hash, Pound Sign or Octothorpe |
| 6 | $ | Dollar |
| 7 | % | Percent |
| 8 | ^ | Caret |
| 9 | & | Ampersand or And |
| 10 | * | Asterisk |
| 11 | ( | Open Parenthesis |
| 12 | ) | Close Parenthesis |
| 13 | ( ) | Parenthesis |
| 14 | _ | Underscore |
| 15 | – | Minus, Hyphen, en dash, em dash |
| 16 | + | Plus |
| 17 | = | Equal |
| 18 | { | Open Brace, Open Curly Bracket |
| 19 | } | Close Brace, Close Curly Bracket |
| 20 | { } | Brace or Curly Brackets |
| 21 | [ | Open Square Bracket |
| 22 | ] | Close Square Bracket |
| 23 | [ ] | Square Bracket |
| 24 | | | Vertical Pipe |
| 25 | \ | Back Slash |
| 26 | : | Colon |
| 27 | ; | Semicolon |
| 28 | " | Quotation Marks |
| 29 | " " | Double Quotation Marks |
| 30 | ' | Apostrophe |
| 31 | ' ' | Single Quotation Marks |
| 32 | , | Comma |
| 33 | < | Less Than |
| 34 | > | Greater Than |
| 35 | . | Period, Dot |
| 36 | / | Slash (Forward Slash), Solidus, Virgule |
| 37 | ? | Question Mark, Eroteme |
Number 5 is correctly known as an octothorpe.
Thank you, we added in the table!!
Really? I wonder why it is that the word is not listed in any dictionary that I am aware of.
because it was a coined word by an ATT (Ma Bell at the time) employee
Aye, "correctly known" is a stretch. The term was coined by corporate America in the late 20th century (1960's), so it's relatively a recent development.
I am unable to locate the very word "Octothorpe" in any of my several dictionaries, nor @ dictionary(dot)com. As the word or prefix of 'octo' indicates a quantity of eight, could you please explain the genesis and history of your use of the spelling Octothorpe? Perhaps you have created a new word, which is good, I've done it myself; but it is confusing relating the prefix "Octo" for a nine spaced symbol.
First mentioned by Mary, also can be found in the wiktionary the link below: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Unsupported_titles/Number_sign, thank you!
I found that the term came from the counting of the ends of the lines that make up the pound (lb) symbol #, I thought an interesting take on it.
Etymology
Origin disputed. There is no known usage before it was adopted by Bell Labs in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so most sources agree it was coined by someone at Bell Labs, but accounts from Bell Labs personnel conflict on the details.[1] The derivation as a traditional term from octo- ("eight") and thorpe ("field, hamlet or small village") lacks any evidence, but there is near universal agreement that the first element refers to the number eight. Eight is derived from the number of ends of the lines. Thorpe could be reference to Jim Thorpe, as one proponent was a fan of the athlete.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/octothorpe
Where is the ? question mark?
Great, we have added it on the list, thank you for reminding:)
#27 is misspelled, according to all I find.
Thank you, changed!
haha!
Yes, this is a Good one
Hi there, јust wɑnted to ѕay, I loved this post. It was helpful.
Keep on posting!
Thank you!!
# hash
` tick
& et
Thank you!
Y'all are too darn smart!
Is there any such thing? For one's own good, maybe. But isn't factual information pretty much a good thing?
No. 8 is caret, not carat 🙂
Nice catch, lol, thank you so much!!
what is the name of this one use in e.g. ä, ö, ü
Umlaut. German for the lying-down colon : but the first U in umlaut should have an umlaut over it,
flos (UK)
The English name of that symbol is a dieresis.
That depends: if it is used to indicate separation, e.g., coöperate, then you are correct; how–ever, when used in a German word (in English or in German), it should be called an umlaut, which comes from "um" (around) and "laut" (sound), meaning that the sound of the letter has been changed.
what about the other symbol on the 5
I have the symbol of "%" (percent) on the number of 5, and it is already on the list, thank you!
Some keyboard have the euro sign on "5", I think that is what he is referring to
Thank you!! I Googled the keyboards in different regions, and found the standard keyboard has the % sign on the number 5 key, but there is also the currency sign (or some other signs) on this key in some countries.
So what do people call the ¬ symbol on the top left of a UK keyboard? the key with the backtick on it? It reminds me of the symbol used in some computer documentation to to indicate that the user should hit the "carriage return" (aka "Enter") key. At college we called it a 'ding' because that was the sound you used to get on a mechanical typewiter (and on teletype terminals, once they'd been engineered so they didn't make the floor shudder when they flew back to the left). My key has a ¬ above the backtick ` and, to the right of them both, a 'pipe' (unbroken), whereas the | key (shift plus \) has a small break halfway up the |. I'd like to know if anyone has a good name for it, because I've been calling it "thumbs-down" (just do the gesture with your left hand).
Philip,
The symbol is called an "optional hyphen" or less commonly, a "soft hyphen." It is used in word processing. The optional hyphen marks where a word should be split, and hyphenated, if it falls at the end of a line. Depending on your word processing software, this symbol is hidden. Word, for example, hides this and other select formatting marks. Various settings can be changed to show them in Word: click the paragraph mark in the Home ribbon panel or via the the File menu in options/display.
Hi Everyone,
I think the title should be in Plural as follows (changing "is" with "are"):
"What are the Names of the Keyboard Symbols (Full List)"
Excellent article by the way 🙂
Thank you so much 🙂 We changed.
very useful post. thank you very much. it help a lot
The symbol commonly called a question mark is called an eroteme.
The symbol commonly called an exclamation point is called an ecphoneme.
The symbol for a division sign ( ÷ ) is called an obelus
What you call a slash actually has two names. It is called a solidus, if it's used with money and it's called virgule, if it's used with words.
The symbol you call a hyphen or minus sign is correct when used in that was. But for ranges, it's called an en dash, for sentence breaks it's called an em dash. There is also a swung dash, which looks like this ⁓
Super!! Thank you all your comments, learned a lot!
There is a symbol that looks like an "i" with a tail that goes to the left. What is it and how do I find it on my keyboard?
John Hillier. As a school boy what you today call a forward slash was
known as a oblique stroke.
pls add the symbol ( … )
In some programming languages (ex lisp, scheme) the "!" character (exclamation point) is called "bang". For example, "set!" is read as "set bang".
I have also heard the "'" apostrophe character called "pop" in certain computer languages also. This may be too esoteric for a general audience however.
According to techtarget.com, what you correctly call a vertical pipe has other names as well: " The vertical bar ( | ) — also called the vertical line, vertical slash, pipe, pipe symbol or upright slash ."
What does the gave accent (`) do?
The name of the (`) is the grave symbol. On some keyboards, you type (` then A) to place the grave accent above the A. (Based on a search that I conducted)
It is also typically used in French words: è and é are French letters. Also ç btw (but maybe not needed to be mentioned since it is a French letter).
Next to that, §, ^, ù, µ, £ and € should be mentioned.
Note that | (the vertical pipe) is also called just "pipe", since the "horizontal pipe" doesn't exist (is called dash or minus)
Many calligraphers have acquired