How to type White Triangle Down
To type White Triangle Down (▽), press Alt + 9661 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+25BD directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 25bd on Linux, or 25bd then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
White Down-Pointing Triangle
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+25BD
- Windows
- Alt + 9661 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 9661 | 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+25BD | WHITE DOWN-POINTING TRIANGLE |
Symbols related to White Triangle Down
The Unicode code chart points from ▽ to ∇, and the rest are filed under down-pointing and triangle in CLDR, the keyword list Unicode publishes alongside the names.
Other symbols
▽ lives in the Geometric Shapes block (U+25A0-U+25FF), squares, circles, triangles and diamonds. Within Unicode it is classified as So, a symbol.
What White Triangle Down 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: $\bigtriangledown$ 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 hollow down-pointing triangle. That word is what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when White Triangle Down 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 White Triangle Down
The standard recognises ▽ under another name as well: Hamilton operator. That is a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why it turns up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
The code chart points from ▽ to Nabla (Del), heavy white down-pointing triangle (U+26DB) and alchemical symbol for water (U+1F704). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when White Triangle Down looks nearly right but not quite.
How White Triangle Down 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 White Triangle Down
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+25BD |
| Decimal | 9661 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 96 BD |
| UTF-16 bytes | 25 BD |
| HTML entity | ▽ |
| HTML numeric | ▽ or ▽ |
| CSS | \25BD |
| JavaScript | \u25BD |
| Python | \u25BD |
| URL-encoded | %E2%96%BD |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\bigtriangledown$ |
| SVG | 25BD.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ▽ arrives as â–½
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 96 BD are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.