List of mathematical symbols by subject

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following list of mathematical symbols by subject features a selection of the most common symbols used in modern mathematical notation within formulas, grouped by mathematical topic. As it is impossible to know if a complete list existing today of all symbols used in history is a representation of all ever used in history, as this would necessitate knowing if extant records are of all usages, only those symbols which occur often in mathematics or mathematics education are included. Many of the characters are standardized, for example in DIN 1302 General mathematical symbols or DIN EN ISO 80000-2 Quantities and units – Part 2: Mathematical signs for science and technology.

The following list is largely limited to non-alphanumeric characters. It is divided by areas of mathematics and grouped within sub-regions. Some symbols have a different meaning depending on the context and appear accordingly several times in the list. Further information on the symbols and their meaning can also be found in the respective linked articles.

Guide[]

The following information is provided for each mathematical symbol:

Symbol
The symbol as it is represented by LaTeX. If there are several typographic variants, only one of the variants is shown.
Usage
An exemplary use of the symbol in a formula. Letters here stand as a placeholder for numbers, variables or complex expressions. Different possible applications are listed separately.
Articles with usage
Examples of Wikipedia articles in which the symbol is used.
LaTeX
The LaTeX command that creates the icon. Characters from the ASCII character set can be used directly, with a few exceptions (e.g., pound sign #, backslash \, braces {}, and percent sign %). High-and low-position is indicated via the ^ and _ characters, and is not explicitly specified.
HTML
The icon in HTML, if it is defined as a named mark. Non-named characters can be indicated in the form &#xnnnn by specifying the Unicode code point of the next column. High-and low-position can be indicated via <sup></sup> and <sub></sub>.
Unicode
The code point of the corresponding Unicode character. Some characters are combining and require the entry of additional characters. For brackets, the code points of opening and closing forms are specified.

Set theory[]

Definition symbols[]

Symbol Unicode character Usage Articles with usage LaTeX HTML Unicode Hex
: Definition \colon &colon; U+003A

Set construction[]

Symbol Unicode character Usage Articles with usage LaTeX HTML Unicode Hex

Empty set \varnothing,
\emptyset
&empty; U+2205
{ } Set (mathematics) \{ \} U+007B/D
| \mid &VerticalLine; U+007C
: \colon &colon; U+003A

Set operations[]

Symbol Unicode character Usage Articles with usage LaTeX HTML Unicode Hex
Union (set theory) \cup &cup; U+222A
\bigcup &xcup; U+22C3
Intersection (set theory) \cap &cap; U+2229
\bigcap &Intersection; U+22C2
Difference (set theory) \setminus &smallsetminus; U+2216
Symmetric difference \triangle &Delta; U+2206
Cartesian product \times &times; U+2A2F
Disjoint union \dot\cup &cupdot; U+228D
\uplus &uplus; U+228E
\sqcup &SquareUnion; U+2294
Intersection (set theory) \dot\cap &capdot; U+2A40
\sqcap &SquareIntersection; U+2293
\capwedge &capand; U+2A44
Transversal intersection \mlcp &mlcp; U+2ADB
Complement (set theory) \mathrm{C} &complement; U+2201
◌̄ \bar &#x304; U+0304
◌̅ \overline{A} U+0305
WIKI