Star symbols and decorative asterisks
20 symbols available - Click any symbol to copy
Last reviewed on May 7, 2026
Star characters in Unicode fall into three loose groups: geometric stars with a fixed number of points, dingbat stars drawn as decorative ornaments, and compatibility stars inherited from older standards. They are scattered across the Geometric Shapes, Dingbats, and Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs blocks.
The two stars that get the most use are the solid black star (★) and the white (outline) star (☆). They are the same five-pointed shape and are designed to be paired — for example, a four-out-of-five rating renders as ★★★★☆. Both inherit the surrounding text color, so a star inside a yellow span is yellow.
Beyond the standard five-pointed star, Unicode includes a black four-pointed star (✦), a white four-pointed star (✧), an eight-pointed star (✪), an eight-spoked asterisk (∗), the heavy eight-pointed sparkle (✵), and the twelve-pointed black star (✶). The eight-pointed star is common in Middle Eastern decorative art; the four-pointed star reads as a compass or sparkle.
The sparkles (✪ and emoji ✨), the heavy sparkle (✳), and the balloon-spoked asterisk (✵) are decorative ornaments rather than literal stars. They show up in headings, around stylized text, and in social-media flourishes. The emoji sparkles render in color on most platforms.
For accessible star ratings, prefer either an SVG component with proper ARIA labels or a screen-reader-only text equivalent (“4 out of 5 stars”) alongside the Unicode glyphs. Plain text stars are read aloud as “black star, black star, black star, black star, white star,” which is correct but tedious; the text label is more useful.
Some emoji that include stars — such as the dizzy face or the glowing star emoji — are encoded as their own characters and are not composed from the basic star. Use the dedicated emoji character when you want the colored, expressive form, and the geometric star when you want a text-color glyph.
For ratings and reviews: the black/white pair (★/☆). For headings and decorative emphasis: the heavy sparkle (✳) or the eight-pointed star (✪). For lists where the star is a bullet: the small black star (✩) or, in places where it is supported, the asterisk operator (∗). For colored, emoji-style stars, use the glowing star or shooting-star emoji.
Stars often appear next to hearts and aesthetic glyphs in social posts. The symbol text generator wraps text in star borders.