How to type Angle
To type Angle (∠), press Alt + 8736 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or write ∠ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+2220 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2220 on Linux, or 2220 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Angle
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2220
- Windows
- Alt + 8736 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 8736 | Above 255, so Windows will not accept it as typed. Copy the character instead. |
| Mac | N/A | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ∠ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+2220 | ANGLE |
Other math symbols
∠ lives in the Mathematical Operators block (U+2200-U+22FF), the core set of mathematical and logical operators. Within Unicode it is classified as Sm, a mathematical symbol. Software may lay it out with the spacing an operator expects.
How to type ∠ in Microsoft Word and on a phone
In Microsoft Word, type 2220 and press Alt + X. Word reads the four characters before the cursor as a hex codepoint and replaces them, and pressing Alt + X again turns ∠ back into 2220, which is the quickest way to check what a character really is.
On a phone, neither iOS nor Android has a codepoint route. Copy ∠ from this page once, then add it as a text replacement (Settings, General, Keyboard on iOS) so a short abbreviation expands to it from then on.
What Angle is used for
In mathematical notation ∠ is an ordinary symbol: it carries no special spacing and sits in an expression the way a letter does, standing for a thing rather than doing something to the things around it. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\angle$ in LaTeX, in maths mode rather than in a sentence.
Unicode publishes a second list of names for ∠ in CLDR, the keywords its own search data offers rather than the formal name, and it is acute. That word is what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Angle is not the name they know it by, and the search on the symbol lists matches it as well as the Unicode name.
What Unicode says about Angle
Unicode annotates ∠ directly. Against U+2220 the code chart carries the note “Used in astrological contexts for aspect semisquare”. That is the standard saying what the character is for, rather than an inference from its name.
The code chart points from ∠ to acute angle (U+299F). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Angle looks nearly right but not quite.
How Angle behaves in software
∠ is East Asian Ambiguous: one column in a Western locale and two in a CJK one. That is why a table that lines up on your machine can break on somebody else's, with no change to the text at all. It carries no direction of its own, so in a line that mixes English with Arabic or Hebrew it takes the direction of the text around it rather than forcing one. It is a mirrored character: in right-to-left text it is drawn reversed, so it keeps pointing at what it pointed at.
What people ask about Angle
Which symbol correctly compares the two angles?
Unicode calls ∠ ANGLE, at U+2220.
Where is the angle symbol in word?
In Word, type 2220 and press Alt+X, which converts the codepoint you just typed into ∠. Insert › Symbol › More Symbols finds it by its Unicode name, ANGLE. Google Docs has no Alt+X, so use Alt + 8736 there, or Insert › Special characters and search the same name.
How to type the angle symbol?
You can press Alt + 8736 on Windows, with Num Lock on and the digits typed on the numeric keypad. That produces ∠.
Every way to write Angle
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2220 |
| Decimal | 8736 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 88 A0 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 22 20 |
| HTML entity | ∠ |
| HTML numeric | ∠ or ∠ |
| CSS | \2220 |
| JavaScript | \u2220 |
| Python | \u2220 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%88%A0 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\angle$ |
| SVG | 2220.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ∠ arrives as âˆ
One character has become three, which is what a three-byte UTF-8 sequence looks like when each byte is read separately: E2 88 A0 read as Windows-1252 gives exactly ∠. The text is intact and the damage is in the reading, so setting the reader to UTF-8 restores it and retyping does not. A rectangle instead of the mojibake means the opposite: the encoding is right and the font has no glyph at U+2220, which for a character this far outside Latin-1 is common in older office fonts.