Division Sign
On Windows, hold Alt and type 0247 on the numeric keypad to insert division sign.
- Alt code
- Alt+0247
- HTML entity
- ÷
- Unicode
- U+00F7
About this symbol
The division sign is called an obelus. The Swiss mathematician Johann Rahn first used it for division in his Teutsche Algebra in 1659. Long before that, scribes used a similar mark in the margins of manuscripts to flag passages they doubted.
It is mostly seen on calculators and in school arithmetic. The international standard for mathematical signs, ISO 80000-2, advises against it, and in Norway, and until recently Denmark, it has been used to mean subtraction.
Unicode facts
- Official name
- DIVISION SIGN
- Also called
- Obelus
- Type
- Maths symbol
- Unicode block
- Latin-1 Supplement
- Unicode group
- Mathematical operator
- Added in
- Unicode 1.1 (1993)
- Unicode notes
- Occasionally used as an alternate, more visually distinct shape for a hyphen in some contexts
- Historically used as a punctuation mark to denote questionable passages in manuscripts
Click the symbol or any value at the top of the page to copy it. See the full Windows Extended Codes: 0128 to 0255 chart for related characters.