How to type Caret
^ is Shift + 6, in the same place on US and UK keyboards. Alt + 94 on the numeric keypad produces it on any Windows layout, which is the way in when the keyboard in front of you has no key for it, and ^ writes it in HTML. Its codepoint is U+005E.
Circumflex Accent
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+005E
- Windows
- Alt + 94
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 94 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| HTML | ^ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+005E | CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT |
Symbols related to Caret
The Unicode code chart points from ^ to ∧, and the rest are filed under accent in CLDR, the keyword list Unicode publishes alongside the names.
Other math symbols
^ lives in the Basic Latin block (U+0000-U+007F), the original ASCII set: the letters, digits and punctuation printed on a US keyboard. Within Unicode it is classified as Sk, a modifier symbol. Standalone versions of marks that usually combine.
What Caret is used for
^ belongs in prose rather than in an equation. LaTeX writes it \^{}, a text command, and there is no maths command for it at all: it is a sign that gets written down, not an operator that acts on anything. Putting it inside $...$ is how it comes out looking wrong.
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 circumflex accent, chevron, control and hat. Those words are what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Caret 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
Unicode's own confusables table, the one used to catch lookalike domain names, groups ^ with ˆ (U+02C6, Modifier Letter Circumflex Accent). They are separate characters that render close enough to be mistaken for one another, so a search or a string comparison will separate them where your eye will not. If Caret is not matching where you expect it to, one of these is the usual reason.
What Unicode says about Caret
Unicode annotates ^ directly. Against U+005E the code chart carries the note “This is a spacing character”. It adds: used in ASCII-based representation of exponentiation. That is the standard saying what the character is for, rather than an inference from its name.
The code chart points from ^ to Logical And, modifier letter up arrowhead (U+02C4), modifier letter circumflex accent (U+02C6), combining circumflex accent (U+0302), caret (U+2038) and up arrowhead (U+2303). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Caret looks nearly right but not quite.
How Caret behaves in software
^ takes one column in a terminal. 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.
What people ask about Caret
What is the symbol of royal power?
^ is CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT, encoded at U+005E. The Unicode code chart annotates it “This is a spacing character”, which is the standard's own statement of what it is for. It is distinct from modifier letter up arrowhead (U+02C4) and modifier letter circumflex accent (U+02C6), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
How to type power symbol in keyboard?
Shift + 6, on both US and UK layouts. Alt + 94 on the numeric keypad also produces it.
Every way to write Caret
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+005E |
| Decimal | 94 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 5E |
| UTF-16 bytes | 00 5E |
| HTML entity | ^ |
| HTML numeric | ^ or ^ |
| CSS | \005E |
| JavaScript | \u005E |
| Python | \u005E |
| URL-encoded | %5E |
| LaTeX, in prose | \^{} |
| SVG | 005E.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ^ needs escaping
^ is one byte in ASCII, in UTF-8 and in every code page in common use, so it never arrives corrupted. Its problem is the opposite one: it means something to the software reading it. In HTML it can be written ^, in a URL it is %5E, and inside a CSV field, a shell command or a regular expression it has to be quoted or escaped rather than typed plainly. That is also why ^ is the character people substitute when the one they wanted will not type.