Unicode Look-Alike Math Symbols

Look-Alike Math Characters

Lots symbols look similar but mean different things.

When picking a symbol, best to trust the symbol's unicode name for its meaning, not appearance. Because rarely used symbol may look very different on another computer.

Here is examples of possible confusion:

• ∆ U+2206: INCREMENT
• Δ U+394: GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA

• ∂ U+2202: PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL
• δ U+3B4: GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA

• ∑ U+2211: N-ARY SUMMATION
• Σ U+3A3: GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA

• µ U+B5: MICRO SIGN
• μ U+3BC: GREEK SMALL LETTER MU

• ℯ U+212F: SCRIPT SMALL E
• ⅇ U+2147: DOUBLE-STRUCK ITALIC SMALL E
• ℇ U+2107: EULER CONSTANT

Here is more visually simliar character. In different fonts they may look different or identical:

• ~ U+7E: TILDE
• ∼ U+223C: TILDE OPERATOR
• ∽ U+223D: REVERSED TILDE
• 〜 U+223D: REVERSED TILDE
• ∿ U+223F: SINE WAVE
• ≈ U+2248: ALMOST EQUAL TO

Another example:

• ⩳ U+2A73: EQUALS SIGN ABOVE TILDE OPERATOR
• ≌U+224C: ALL EQUAL TO
• ⩯ U+2A6F: ALMOST EQUAL TO WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT
• ⩰ U+2A70: APPROXIMATELY EQUAL OR EQUAL TO