How to type Circled Plus
To type Circled Plus (⊕), press Alt + 8853 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+2295 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2295 on Linux, or 2295 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Circled Plus
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2295
- Windows
- Alt + 8853 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 8853 | 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+2295 | CIRCLED PLUS |
Symbols related to Circled Plus
These are filed under plus and circled in CLDR, the keyword list Unicode publishes alongside the names.
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.
What Circled Plus is used for
In mathematical notation ⊕ is a binary operator: it takes one operand on each side, and TeX sets a medium space either side of it so that the three parts read as a single expression rather than as three symbols in a row. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\oplus$ in LaTeX, in maths mode rather than in a sentence.
What Unicode says about Circled Plus
The standard recognises ⊕ under other names as well: direct sum, vector pointing into page. Those are a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why they turn up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
The code chart points from ⊕ to n-ary circled plus operator (U+2A01) and alchemical symbol for verdigris (U+1F728). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Circled Plus looks nearly right but not quite.
How Circled Plus 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.
What people ask about Circled Plus
When betting what does plus and minus mean?
⊕ is CIRCLED PLUS, encoded at U+2295. It is distinct from n-ary circled plus operator (U+2A01) and alchemical symbol for verdigris (U+1F728), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
Every way to write Circled Plus
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2295 |
| Decimal | 8853 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 8A 95 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 22 95 |
| HTML entity | ⊕ |
| HTML numeric | ⊕ or ⊕ |
| CSS | \2295 |
| JavaScript | \u2295 |
| Python | \u2295 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%8A%95 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\oplus$ |
| SVG | 2295.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ⊕ arrives as ⊕
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 8A 95 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.