How to type Approximately Equal
To type Approximately Equal (≈), press Alt + 247 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or press Option + X on Mac, or write ≈ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+2248 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2248 on Linux, or 2248 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Almost Equal To
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2248
- Windows
- Alt + 247
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 247 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| Mac | Option + X | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ≈ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+2248 | ALMOST EQUAL TO |
Symbols related to Approximately Equal
These are filed under equal in CLDR, the keyword list Unicode publishes alongside the names.
Other math symbols
Approximately Equal is not the only name it goes by. People look for ≈ as almost equal and approx as well, and the search box on this site matches any of them, so you do not have to know which name Unicode chose.
≈ 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.
What Approximately Equal is used for
In mathematical notation ≈ is a relation: it makes a claim about the two things either side of it, which is true or false rather than a value to work out. TeX gives a relation more space than an operator, and breaks a long line at one in preference to breaking at an operator. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\approx$ 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 they are almost equal, approximate and approximation. Those words are what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Approximately Equal is not the name they know it by, and the search on the symbol lists matches them as well as the Unicode name.
What ≈ gets confused with
≈ has lookalikes that are a different character underneath. Search, sorting and anything that compares strings can tell them apart even where a reader cannot.
~ (U+007E) is the ASCII tilde, a spacing accent rather than a relation. It sits high, and it is the one that actually gets typed.
≅ (U+2245) is approximately equal to, which means congruent and belongs to geometry.
What Unicode says about Approximately Equal
The standard recognises ≈ under another name as well: asymptotic to. That is a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why it turns up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
How Approximately Equal 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 Approximately Equal
What is the approximate symbol?
≈ is ALMOST EQUAL TO, encoded at U+2248.
How to type approximate sign?
You can press Alt + 247 on Windows, with Num Lock on and the digits typed on the numeric keypad, or press Option + X on Mac. Either produces ≈.
Every way to write Approximately Equal
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2248 |
| Decimal | 8776 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 89 88 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 22 48 |
| HTML entity | ≈ |
| HTML numeric | ≈ or ≈ |
| CSS | \2248 |
| JavaScript | \u2248 |
| Python | \u2248 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%89%88 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\approx$ |
| SVG | 2248.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ≈ arrives as ≈
One character has become three, which is what a three-byte UTF-8 sequence looks like when each byte is read separately: E2 89 88 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+2248, which for a character this far outside Latin-1 is common in older office fonts.