How to type Infinity
To type Infinity (∞), press Alt + 236 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or press Option + 5 on Mac, or write ∞ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+221E directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 221e on Linux, or 221e then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Infinity
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+221E
- Windows
- Alt + 236
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 236 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| Mac | Option + 5 | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ∞ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+221E | INFINITY |
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.
How to type ∞ in Microsoft Word
In Microsoft Word, type 221e 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 ∞ back into 221e, which is the quickest way to check what a character really is.
What Infinity is used for
In mathematical notation ∞ is an ordinary symbol: it carries no special spacing and sits in an expression the way a letter does, standing for a thing rather than doing something to the things around it. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\infty$ 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 infinity sign. That word is what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Infinity is not the name they know it by, and the search on the symbol lists matches it as well as the Unicode name.
How Infinity 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 Infinity
How do i type the infinity symbol?
You can press Alt + 236 on Windows, with Num Lock on and the digits typed on the numeric keypad, or press Option + 5 on Mac. Either produces ∞.
Does 8 mean infinity?
∞ is INFINITY, encoded at U+221E.
Every way to write Infinity
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+221E |
| Decimal | 8734 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 88 9E |
| UTF-16 bytes | 22 1E |
| HTML entity | ∞ |
| HTML numeric | ∞ or ∞ |
| CSS | \221E |
| JavaScript | \u221E |
| Python | \u221E |
| URL-encoded | %E2%88%9E |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\infty$ |
| SVG | 221E.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 88 9E 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+221E, which for a character this far outside Latin-1 is common in older office fonts.