How to type Nabla (Del)
To type Nabla (Del) (∇), press Alt + 8711 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+2207 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2207 on Linux, or 2207 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Nabla
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2207
- Windows
- Alt + 8711 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 8711 | 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+2207 | NABLA |
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 Nabla (Del) is used for
In mathematical notation ∇ 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: $\nabla$ 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 triangle. That word is what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Nabla (Del) 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 Nabla (Del)
The standard recognises ∇ under other names as well: backward difference, gradient, del. Those are a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why they turn up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
Unicode annotates ∇ directly. Against U+2207 the code chart carries the note “Used for Laplacian operator (written with superscript 2)”. That is the standard saying what the character is for, rather than an inference from its name.
The code chart points from ∇ to White Triangle Down. These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Nabla (Del) looks nearly right but not quite.
How Nabla (Del) 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.
Every way to write Nabla (Del)
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2207 |
| Decimal | 8711 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 88 87 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 22 07 |
| HTML entity | ∇ |
| HTML numeric | ∇ or ∇ |
| CSS | \2207 |
| JavaScript | \u2207 |
| Python | \u2207 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%88%87 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\nabla$ |
| SVG | 2207.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ∇ arrives as ∇
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 88 87 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.