How to type Down Arrow
To type Down Arrow (↓), press Alt + 25 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+2193 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2193 on Linux, or 2193 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Downwards Arrow
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2193
- Windows
- Alt + 25
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 25 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| Mac | N/A | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ↓ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+2193 | DOWNWARDS ARROW |
Symbols related to Down Arrow
These are filed under arrow in CLDR, the keyword list Unicode publishes alongside the names.
Other arrows symbols
↓ lives in the Arrows block (U+2190-U+21FF), arrows in every direction and weight. Within Unicode it is classified as Sm, a mathematical symbol. Software may lay it out with the spacing an operator expects.
What Down Arrow 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: $\downarrow$ 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 down-pointing arrow. That word is what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Down Arrow 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 Down Arrow
Unicode annotates ↓ directly. Against U+2193 the code chart carries the note “IPA: ingressive airflow”. That is the standard saying what the character is for, rather than an inference from its name.
The code chart points from ↓ to leftwards arrow from downwards arrow (U+1F8C0). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Down Arrow looks nearly right but not quite.
How Down Arrow 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 Down Arrow
How to type a down arrow?
You can press Alt + 25 on Windows, with Num Lock on and the digits typed on the numeric keypad. That produces ↓.
What is the triangle symbol with up and down arrows?
↓ is DOWNWARDS ARROW, encoded at U+2193. The Unicode code chart annotates it “IPA: ingressive airflow”, which is the standard's own statement of what it is for. It is distinct from leftwards arrow from downwards arrow (U+1F8C0), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
Every way to write Down Arrow
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2193 |
| Decimal | 8595 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 86 93 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 21 93 |
| HTML entity | ↓ |
| HTML numeric | ↓ or ↓ |
| CSS | \2193 |
| JavaScript | \u2193 |
| Python | \u2193 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%86%93 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\downarrow$ |
| SVG | 2193.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 86 93 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+2193, which for a character this far outside Latin-1 is common in older office fonts.