How to type Delta
To type Delta (Δ), press Alt + 30 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or press Option + J on Mac, or write Δ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+0394 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 0394 on Linux, or 0394 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Greek Capital Letter Delta
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+0394
- Windows
- Alt + 30
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 30 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| Mac | Option + J | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | Δ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+0394 | GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA |
Other greek symbols
Δ lives in the Greek and Coptic block (U+0370-U+03FF), the Greek alphabet, used throughout mathematics and the sciences. Within Unicode it is classified as Lu, an uppercase letter. It has a lowercase counterpart and changes under case conversion. Its bidirectional class makes it left-to-right.
Its lowercase counterpart is δ (U+03B4). They are separate codepoints, so a byte comparison treats them as different characters even though a case-insensitive search does not.
How to type Δ in Microsoft Word and on a phone
In Microsoft Word, type 0394 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 Δ back into 0394, which is the quickest way to check what a character really is.
On a phone, neither iOS nor Android has a codepoint route. Copy Δ 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 Delta is used for
In mathematical notation Δ is a variable: it stands for a quantity rather than acting on one, so an equation treats it the way it treats x, and the spacing around it is the spacing around a letter. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\mupDelta$ in LaTeX, in maths mode rather than in a sentence.
The command is \mupDelta rather than the \Delta most people reach for, and the difference is not cosmetic: mup is unicode-math for maths, upright, and this codepoint is the upright letter. Plain LaTeX's short command gives the sloped math-italic letter, which is a different character with a different codepoint. Copying Δ into an equation gets you the upright one.
Δ is a letter before it is a symbol, and on the Greek keyboard layout it is simply Shift and D: the key your keycap already calls D. That is the route when you are typing Greek rather than reaching for one character. How to type Greek on a keyboard has the whole map.
What Δ gets confused with
Δ 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+25B3) is a white triangle, a geometric shape with no meaning attached.
δ (U+03B4) is small delta, which in the same formula usually means a smaller or infinitesimal change.
What Unicode says about Delta
The code chart points from Δ to increment (U+2206). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Delta looks nearly right but not quite.
How Delta behaves in software
Δ 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 is a left-to-right character, so it holds that direction even inside a right-to-left paragraph.
What people ask about Delta
How do you type a delta symbol?
You can press Alt + 30 on Windows, with Num Lock on and the digits typed on the numeric keypad, or press Option + J on Mac. Either produces Δ.
What does upside down delta mean?
Δ is GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA, encoded at U+0394. It is distinct from increment (U+2206), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
How to insert delta symbol in word?
In Word, type 0394 and press Alt+X, which converts the codepoint you just typed into Δ. Insert › Symbol › More Symbols finds it by its Unicode name, GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA. Google Docs has no Alt+X, so use Alt + 30 there, or Insert › Special characters and search the same name.
Every way to write Delta
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+0394 |
| Decimal | 916 |
| UTF-8 bytes | CE 94 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 03 94 |
| HTML entity | Δ |
| HTML numeric | Δ or Δ |
| CSS | \0394 |
| JavaScript | \u0394 |
| Python | \u0394 |
| URL-encoded | %CE%94 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\mupDelta$ |
| SVG | 0394.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If Δ arrives as Δ
That is this exact character, undamaged: its two UTF-8 bytes CE 94 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The Latin-1 range is where this happens most, because it is the range every legacy system thought it already handled. Nothing is lost, and retyping will not help: the fix is at the reading end, which has to be told the text is UTF-8. An empty rectangle is the opposite complaint, and means the encoding is right and the font has no glyph for U+0394.