Unicode Math Symbols: A Developer's Reference
Published March 15, 2025
Math in Unicode
Unicode dedicates several blocks to mathematical notation, including Mathematical Operators (U+2200–U+22FF), Supplemental Mathematical Operators (U+2A00–U+2AFF), and Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols. In modern UTF-8 documents, you can use these characters directly — no special encoding needed.
Basic operators
| Symbol | Code point | HTML entity | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| + | U+002B | + | Plus sign |
| − | U+2212 | − | Minus sign |
| × | U+00D7 | × | Multiplication |
| ÷ | U+00F7 | ÷ | Division |
| ± | U+00B1 | ± | Plus-minus |
| ∓ | U+2213 | ∓ | Minus-or-plus |
| · | U+00B7 | · | Middle dot |
| ∘ | U+2218 | ∘ | Ring operator |
Relations
| Symbol | Code point | HTML entity | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| = | U+003D | = | Equals |
| ≠ | U+2260 | ≠ | Not equal |
| ≈ | U+2248 | ≈ | Approximately equal |
| < | U+003C | < | Less than |
| > | U+003E | > | Greater than |
| ≤ | U+2264 | ≤ | Less than or equal |
| ≥ | U+2265 | ≥ | Greater than or equal |
| ≡ | U+2261 | ≡ | Identical to |
Set theory
| Symbol | Code point | HTML entity | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| ∈ | U+2208 | ∈ | Element of |
| ∉ | U+2209 | ∉ | Not element of |
| ⊂ | U+2282 | ⊂ | Subset of |
| ⊃ | U+2283 | ⊃ | Superset of |
| ⊆ | U+2286 | ⊆ | Subset or equal |
| ⊇ | U+2287 | ⊇ | Superset or equal |
| ∪ | U+222A | ∪ | Union |
| ∩ | U+2229 | ∩ | Intersection |
| ∅ | U+2205 | ∅ | Empty set |
Logic
| Symbol | Code point | HTML entity | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| ∧ | U+2227 | ∧ | Logical AND |
| ∨ | U+2228 | ∨ | Logical OR |
| ¬ | U+00AC | ¬ | Not sign |
| ⇒ | U+21D2 | ⇒ | Implies |
| ⇔ | U+21D4 | ⇔ | If and only if |
| ∀ | U+2200 | ∀ | For all |
| ∃ | U+2203 | ∃ | There exists |
Greek letters
Greek letters are used extensively in math, science, and engineering. Unicode includes both uppercase and lowercase forms:
| Symbol | Code point | HTML entity | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| α | U+03B1 | α | Alpha |
| β | U+03B2 | β | Beta |
| γ | U+03B3 | γ | Gamma |
| δ | U+03B4 | δ | Delta |
| ε | U+03B5 | ε | Epsilon |
| θ | U+03B8 | θ | Theta |
| λ | U+03BB | λ | Lambda |
| μ | U+03BC | μ | Mu |
| π | U+03C0 | π | Pi |
| σ | U+03C3 | σ | Sigma |
| φ | U+03C6 | φ | Phi |
| ω | U+03C9 | ω | Omega |
Subscripts and superscripts
Unicode includes dedicated code points for superscript and subscript digits and some letters, allowing you to write expressions like x² + y³ or H₂O without requiring markup:
| Type | Characters | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Superscript digits | ⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹ | U+2070–U+2079 |
| Subscript digits | ₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉ | U+2080–U+2089 |
| Superscript letters | ⁿ ⁱ | U+207F (n), U+2071 (i) |
| Subscript letters | ₐ ₑ ₒ ₓ | U+2090 (a), U+2091 (e), U+2092 (o), U+2093 (x) |
Using math symbols in HTML
In UTF-8 HTML documents, you can paste math symbols directly into your markup. For symbols with named entities (like × or ÷), entities can improve readability. For symbols without named entities, use numeric references like ∓ or simply paste the Unicode character.
For complex mathematical expressions, consider using MathML or a rendering library like KaTeX or MathJax rather than constructing formulas from individual Unicode characters.