The degree symbol or degree sign, , is a typographical symbol that is used, among other things, to represent

degrees of arc A degree (in full, a degree of arc, arc degree, or arcdegree), usually denoted by ° (the degree symbol), is a measurement of a plane angle in which one full rotation is 360 degrees. It is not an SI unit—the SI unit of angular measure is th ...

(e.g. in geographic coordinate systems), hours (in the medical field), degrees of temperature or

alcohol proof Alcohol proof (usually termed simply "proof" in relation to a beverage) is a measure of the content of ethanol (alcohol) in an alcoholic beverage. The term was originally used in England and was equal to about 1.8 times the percentage of alcohol ...

. The symbol consists of a small superscript circle.

History

The word degree is equivalent to Latin gradus which, since the medieval period, could refer to any stage in a graded system of ranks or steps. The number of the rank in question was indicated by ordinal numbers, in abbreviation with the

ordinal indicator In written languages, an ordinal indicator is a character, or group of characters, following a numeral denoting that it is an ordinal number, rather than a cardinal number. In English orthography, this corresponds to the suffixes ''-st'', ''- ...

(a superscript '' o''). Use of "degree" specifically for the degrees of arc, used in conjunction with Arabic numerals, became common in the 16th century, but this was without the use of an ordinal marker or degree symbol. Similarly, the introduction of the

temperature scale Scale of temperature is a methodology of calibrating the physical quantity temperature in metrology. Empirical scales measure temperature in relation to convenient and stable parameters, such as the freezing and boiling point of water. Absolute ...

s with degrees in the 18th century was at first without such symbols, but with the word "gradus" spelled out. Use of the degree symbol was introduced for temperature in the later 18th century and became widespread in the early 19th century.

Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

with Arabic numerals – for example, when he wrote in the introduction: :
p. vi
:(... a series of experiments ..firstly, on the existence of that same elastic fluid .. The is to be read as meaning "in the first place", followed by ("in the second place"), etc. In the same work, when Lavoisier gives a temperature, he spells out the word "degree" explicitly, for example (p. 194): ("a temperature of 16 to 17 degrees of the thermometer"). An early use of the degree symbol proper is that by

Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "infl ...

in 1776 for degrees of the

Fahrenheit scale The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined hi ...

. The degree symbol for degrees of temperature appears to have been transferred to the use for

early in the 19th century. An early textbook using this notation is Charles Hutton, "A Course of Mathematics" vol. 1 (1836), page 383. An earlier convention is found in Conrad Malte-Brun, "Universal Geography" vol. 1 (1827), where degrees of arc are abbreviated with a superscript "d" (alongside a superscript "m" for minutes of arc).

Typography

In the case of degrees of angular arc, the degree symbol follows the number without any intervening

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually cons ...

, e.g. . The addition of minute and second of arc follows the degree units, with intervening spaces (optionally, non-breaking space) between the sexagesimal degree subdivisions but no spaces between the numbers and units, for example . In the case of degrees of

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various Conversion of units of temperature, temp ...

, three scientific and engineering standards bodies (the

International Bureau of Weights and Measures The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (french: Bureau international des poids et mesures, BIPM) is an intergovernmental organisation, through which its 59 member-states act together on measurement standards in four areas: chemistry ...

, the

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...

and the U.S. Government Printing Office) prescribe printing temperatures with a space between the number and the degree symbol, e.g. . However, in many works with professional typesetting, including scientific works published by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, the degree symbol is printed with no spaces between the number, the symbol, and the Latin letters "C" or "F" representing Celsius or

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined hi ...

, respectively, e.g. . This is also the practice of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Both

ASTM International ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, ...

and NIST, the official US entities related to the standardization of the use of units, require a space between the numerical value and the unit designator, except when the degree symbol alone is used to denote an angular value. Use of the degree symbol to refer to temperatures measured in

kelvin The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and phy ...

s (symbol: K) was abolished in 1967 by the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures ( CGPM). Therefore, the triple point of water, for instance, is written simply as 273.16 K. The name of the SI unit of temperature is now "kelvin", in lower case, and no longer "degrees Kelvin". In

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

, the symbol is used to denote logarithmic

film speed Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system. A closely related ISO system is used to describe the relation ...

grades. In this usage, it follows the number without spacing as in 21° DIN, 5° ASA or ISO 100/21°.

Encoding

The degree symbol is included in Unicode as . For use with

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...

s there are also code points for and . The degree sign was missing from the basic 7-bit

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...

set of 1963, but in 1987 the

ISO/IEC 8859 ISO/IEC 8859 is a joint ISO and IEC series of standards for 8-bit character encodings. The series of standards consists of numbered parts, such as ISO/IEC 8859-1, ISO/IEC 8859-2, etc. There are 15 parts, excluding the abandoned ISO/IEC 8859-12. ...

standard introduced it at position 0xB0 (176 decimal) in all variants except Part 5 (Cyrillic), 6 (Arabic), 7 (Greek) and 11 (Thai). In 1991 the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

standard incorporated all of the ISO/IEC 8859 code points, including the degree sign (at U+00B0).. The Windows Code Page 1252 was also an extension of ISO/IEC 8859-1 (Part 1 or Latin-1) standard, so it had the degree sign at the same code point, 0xB0. The code point in the older DOS Code Page 437 was 0xF8 (248 decimal); therefore, the Alt code used to enter the symbol directly from the keyboard is .

Lookalikes

Other characters with similar appearance but different meanings include: * (indicator used in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese that follows a numeral denoting that it is an ordinal number, rather than a

cardinal number In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality (size) of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number: the number of elements in the set. T ...

; varies with the font and sometimes underlined) * (superscript letter o) * (standalone) ** (applied to a letter) ** (applied to a letter) ** (applied to a letter) * (standalone) ** (applied to a letter) ** (precomposed characters containing this mark also exists) * (stand alone, typically representing either or ) ** (precomposed characters containing this mark also exists) * ** * * (used in superscripted form, ^⦵, to mean standard state (chemistry)) * ** *

Keyboard entry

Some computer keyboard layouts, such as the

QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden t ...

layout as used in Italy, the

QWERTZ The QWERTZ or QWERTZU keyboard is a typewriter and keyboard layout widely used in Central Europe. The name comes from the first six letters at the top left of the keyboard: ( ). Overview The main difference between QWERTZ and QWERTY is ...

layout as used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the

AZERTY AZERTY () is a specific layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of alphabetical keys; that is, ( ). Similar t ...

layout as used in France and Belgium, have the degree symbol available directly on a key. But the common keyboard layouts in English-speaking countries do not include the degree sign, which then has to be input some other way. The method of inputting depends on the operating system being used. On the

Colemak Colemak is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets, designed to make typing more efficient and comfortable by placing the most frequently used letters of the English language on the home row. Created on 1 January 2006, it is named after its ...

keyboard layout (Windows/Mac), one can press + followed by to insert a degree sign. On

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, one can press + twice to insert a degree sign.

Desktop Operating Systems

With Microsoft Windows, there are several ways to make the degree symbol: * One can type or
Note: "0176" is different from "176"; produces the light shade (░) character.
Note: The NumLock must be set first; on full size keyboards, the numeric keypad must be used; on laptops without a numerical keypad, the virtual numeric keypad must be used (often requiring that the key be held down as the numeric sequence is typed). * The

Character Map Character Map is a utility included with Microsoft Windows operating systems and is used to view the characters in any installed font, to check what keyboard input ( Alt code) is used to enter those characters, and to copy characters to the cli ...

tool also may be used to obtain a graphical menu of symbols. * The US-International English keyboard layout creates the degree symbol with In the classic Mac OS and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

operating systems, the degree symbol can be entered by typing . One can also use the Mac OS character palette, which is available in many programs by selecting ''Special Characters'' from the

Edit Menu The Edit menu is a menu-type graphical control element found in most computer programs that handle files, text or images. It is often the second menu in the menu bar, next to the file menu. Whereas the file menu commonly contains commands a ...

, or from the 'Input Menu' (flag) icon on the menu bar (enabled in the International section of the System Preferences). In

operating systems such as

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

, this symbol may be entered via the Compose key followed by , . Some keyboard layouts display this symbol upon pressing (once or twice, depending on specific keyboard layout), and, in programs created by GTK+, one can enter

characters in any text entry field by first pressing , regardless of keyboard layout. For the degree symbol, this is done by entering (where the last key is the number zero) followed by a space. For

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfa ...

, use the Unicode entry method then then space or return; with the UK extended layout, use .

Mobile Operating Systems

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

, the degree symbol is accessed by pressing and holding and dragging a finger to the degree symbol. This procedure is the same as entering diacritics on other characters. In Android, switch to numbers then symbols . The degrees symbol is found on the second row.

Software-specific

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketi ...

and similar programs, there is often also an ''Insert'' menu with an ''Insert Symbol'' or ''Symbol'' command that brings up a graphical palette of symbols to insert, including the degree symbol. As with the CharMap app, the table is arranged in Unicode order. Alternatively, the alt code technique may be used, as described above. In

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

, the packages gensymb and textcomp provide the commands and \textdegree, respectively. In the absence of these packages one can write the degree symbol as ^ in math mode. In other words, it is written as the empty circle glyph as a superscript. In

AutoCAD AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. Developed and marketed by Autodesk, AutoCAD was first released in December 1982 as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics controllers. ...

it is available as a shortcut string .

References

External links

Earliest Uses of Symbols from Geometry
{{navbox punctuation Mathematical symbols