Math operators and mathematical notation
25 symbols available - Click any symbol to copy
Last reviewed on May 7, 2026
This page collects the Unicode characters most commonly needed in mathematical writing on the web, in documents, and in chat. They are drawn from the Mathematical Operators block (U+2200–U+22FF), the Supplemental Mathematical Operators block (U+2A00–U+2AFF), and a few characters from General Punctuation.
The equals sign (=, U+003D) is the same plain ASCII character you have on your keyboard. The not-equal sign (≠), less-than-or-equal (≤), and greater-than-or-equal (≥) are the Unicode forms used in formal math. The approximate-equal (≈) and tilde-equal (≌) are for approximations of different strengths. Use the dedicated character rather than typing != or <= when you want the result to read as math, not code.
Plus and minus appear as ASCII +/- in everyday writing, but the typographic minus (−, U+2212) is preferred in mathematical text because it is the same width as the plus and aligns visually. The plus-or-minus (±) and minus-or-plus (∓) signs handle two-sided tolerances. Multiplication is properly written with the multiplication sign (×) or with a dot (·), not with a lowercase x. Division uses the obelus (÷) or the slash, depending on context.
Element-of (∈), not-element-of (∉), subset (⊂), superset (⊃), union (∪), intersection (∩), and the empty set (∅) cover most undergraduate set notation. The logical operators not (¬), and (∧), or (∨), for-all (∀), and there-exists (∃) handle predicate logic.
The infinity symbol (∞) is one character, U+221E. The square root (√), cube root (∛), and fourth root (∜) each have their own code point; for higher roots, the radical character is combined with a superscript index. Summation (∑) and product (∏) are large operators that scale with the surrounding math; in plain text they render at body size.
Greek letters carry conventional meanings in math: pi (π) for the circle constant, sigma (σ) for sums and standard deviations, mu (μ) for means, theta (θ) for angles, lambda (λ) for eigenvalues. Browse the full set on the Greek letters page.
For anything beyond a single inline expression, mathematical typesetting systems such as MathML and LaTeX produce far better results than plain Unicode. Use the characters here for short expressions in body text, captions, table headers, error messages, and chat — not for typeset proofs.
Mathematical writing also borrows from arrows (implication, mapping) and punctuation and special (degrees, prime marks).
For named HTML entities (≠, ∑, ∞) see the HTML entities reference. For inserting these characters in Word and Google Docs — including LaTeX-style Math AutoCorrect — see insert symbols in Word and Docs.