Questions tagged [symbols]
This tag is for questions about symbols. It's to be used for all symbols beyond letters and punctuation, like currency symbols, list markers, mathematics and other sciences special symbols. USE THE PUNCTUATION tag for the punctuation marks integral to written English.
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"2+ Million" or "2 Million+"?
When using a plus sign for brevity in a phrase like "over two million", where should the plus sign go?
2+ Million
2 Million+
The same concept would happen with thousand, billion, etc.
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Why represent percentages with "pc" rather than "%"?
I've seen more and more well respected publications expressing percentages using the abbreviation "pc". E.g. Telegraph:
How else to explain the decision to award a board seat to the boss of ...
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Can I write ~€100 to denote an approximate amount of 100 euros? [closed]
I am currently using the expression “~€100” to symbolically denote an approximate amount of one hundred euros. However, I’m not sure whether the symbol ~ followed by the symbol € and the amount of ...
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What do you call these symbols on either side of some text?
Usually as part of a heading / sub-heading, you can often see symbols like in the image below on either side of the text:
I don't mean these symbols specifically, just the general name for these ...
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Can a symbol be an alias?
In math, for example, proofs are often accompanied by 'QED' (quod erat demonstrandum) at the end, indicating their conclusion. Some authors use a square symbol (□) instead of QED, with the same ...
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Something appears valuable or precious but it isn't, symbolically equivalent to Pyrite?
I'm trying to think of a name for my new Animal Crossing town. I'm going for a city with grime and grit that isn't as gilded as some would think. There's a game with a town called Pyrite Town which ...
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How to pronounce the symbol “~” [closed]
Saw this electrical engineer formula in regards to a low voltage charge controller:
5 ~ (15W * #(4~8)) *3
What do I call the “~”
(means approximate I think)
What does this formula mean to a lay person?...
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What's the best way of being clear that a dash ("–") is being used as subtraction in a written message? [closed]
When writing technical emails, it's quite common for me to need to include simple mathematical formulas. I find it hard to clearly include subtractions because dashes are so commonly used as generic ...
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A or AN before a dollar amount preceded by dollar symbol $ [duplicate]
I have found related questions but my doubt remains and is best explained with an example. Consider the following sentence in a Finance academic article, where it is common to use the dollar symbol ...
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What does "a sort of Hercules in strength and weakness" mean? [closed]
It says in Great Expectations, "Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got ...
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'>' vs '+' in describing 'larger/more than' [closed]
If I wanted to use a symbol to describe the weight being 'more than' 10kg. Which of the following is more appropriate?
When weight is > 10 kg
or
When weight is 10+ kg
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What is the literary device when a character takes part in a real play in the story?
In the story, one of the characters acts in a play. This play also exists in real life, and it has a symbolic meaning to the story. Would this be an example of intertextuality or would it be a ...
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How do you say in a URL the symbol "-"? Slash? Minus? Hyphen?
For example: www.hello-stack.com
Maybe you say www dot hello slash stack dot com ?
There are several kind of dashes by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash
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what's the meaning of "occupying one's skin"?
The excerpt is from the following lines:
Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and
the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They
became lords of sounds ...
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1
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What is this swastika-looking symbol in John Hancock's family papers from circa 1762? [closed]
I was looking at the "From The Page" software and tried to transcribe a section of the Hancock family papers, and on Page 137 (seq. 139) the author used what seems to be swastikas to ...
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157
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What is the name of this squiggle symbol? [closed]
I came across a strange symbol while reading the report on the ALGOL 58 programming language (p. 19):
I am referring to the squiggle that appears repeated three times after some semicolons and commas ...
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1
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Letter shaping/orientation/positioning of {M, F} vs {W, M} (signifying/denoting gender in forms/data tabulations/presentations] [closed]
For W and M (Woman and Man) there is equal logoey balance logologically.
However for M and F (Male and Female) the orientation just the logo of the letter F is sideways at a 90° angle change and drops ...
4
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1
answer
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What is the correct way to write out the scientific symbol µeV, microelectronvolts or microelectron-volts?
How should µeV be written out? Is it microelectronvolts? or microelectron-volts?
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1
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What is the meaning of "ន"? [closed]
I found this symbol (ន) as part of one of my fonts, but when I tried to do research on it, I came up with pretty much nothing. This has been nagging at me for a while, so any help would be appreciated....
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Does the currency sign (¤) go before, or after the amount?
Should the currency sign (¤) come before, or after the amount of money?
Should it be "¤ 1.00", or "1.00 ¤"?
Should there be a space between ¤ and the amount?
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Is there a symbol used with AD and BC to mean "possible date"?
When historians are writing, they use BC and AD with the date, e.g.:
Robinson discovered the island in 202 BC.
If historians are uncertain about the date, is there a simple and short notation they can ...
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According to the AP styleguide should the degree symbol by omitted when writing the GPS coordinates in decimal degrees?
The closest answer I could find was the wikipedia entry for decimal degrees which states that in most systems the degree symbol is omitted.
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Is there a symbol for "multiple"?
Not sure if I should be on another site, possibly Math, but is there a generic symbol specifically for "multiple"
For example, I'm trying to breakdown solutions based on number of cases
0 ...
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1
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What does the symbol ≪ mean in word origin description in dictionary.com?
What is the meaning of the symbol ≪ in word origin description in dictionary.com?
e.g. in https://www.dictionary.com/browse/-ule
ORIGIN OF -ULE
< French < Latin -ulus, -ula, -ulum ...
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2
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What is the sign, used in documentation, that means illegible--in the same fashion as [sic]?
For example, if you're transcribing something into a digital format and a segment is too illegible to be transcribed, what parenthetical element should you put in that segment? I remember that there ...
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Is there an alternative way decorate year of death?
I have written short biographies of various scientists from all backgrounds. I have used the format
Stephen Hawking (* 1942 † 2018)
to denote year of birth and death. Since the cross is a Christian ...
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4
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How do you read the symbol “x” when used instead of a preposition?
For example: “Adidas x Stella McCartney “ or “Stan Smith x Adidas”
One of the most known uses I can think of is on “SXSW” and here the “X” is read as “By.”
Is it correct to use it instead of the ...
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Using colon in display of numerical time DURATION
What was Jeff's time?
+--------+----------------------+
| Person | Time taken (minutes) |
+--------+----------------------+
| Jeff | 0:06 |
| John | 0:07 |
| Peter ...
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'At' symbol vs multiplication symbol: adjectives or verbs or what?
I was reading about the origin of the @ symbol. It came on the scene in 1531. It has always meant “at” for pricing. New usages have been assigned to it as well as using “at” as a preposition, e.g.
&...
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548
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What do you call a symbol "—||—" for repeating something that has already been written? Does it have a name at all?
For example, it's used like that:
IEC 61508 Functional Safety of Electrical/Electronic safety-related systems — Part 2. Requirements for ...
—||— Part 3. Glossary
Or, to be precise, this is how it ...
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Pilcrow question
Is there a difference between a shaded and an unshaded pilcrow? I am trying to format a block letter and in the unarranged copy, I am supposed to correct- there are both unshaded and shaded pilcrows.
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3
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When and how did the word hashtag come about? [duplicate]
What caused the change from calling "#" a pound sign to calling it a hashtag? Why? I know that Twitter had much to do with the coinage, but how and why did it come about?
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Is there a symbol for "from"?
I am wondering if there is a symbol or glyph to represent the preposition "from". I doubt there is a formal, de jure symbol (i.e., found in any manual of style or dictionary), but I cannot even find ...
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2
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What is a word for a symbol of something that simultaneously is a manifestation of the thing it symbolizes? [closed]
I am looking for a word that would mean a symbol of some quality or entity that simultaneously IS the thing it symbolizes.
An example would be an Egyptian ankh which is the word 'life', the amulet of ...
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1
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When is it ok to use symbol "#" vs. the word "number" in writing?
When is it ok to use symbol "#" vs. the word "number" in writing? Ex. Vendor # or Vendor number; Job # or Job Number?
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Using an acronym with a name that incorporates the @ symbol
Can you make an acronym out of a name that incorporates the @ symbol? For instance, can "People@Work" be "P@W" in the body of the document once it has been spelled out?
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3
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How to pronounce "slash" in giving an address
How to pronounce "slash" in giving an address, meaning the corner of 2 streets?
I live at 1/9 Park Lane. Should it be read as one slash nine Park Lane?
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1
answer
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Is there a backward 'Z' in American English?
In footage which I was not able to capture, recently, an American documentary presented an alphabet for teaching to children with a backward 'Z'. That is, the letter was like an 'S' with straight ...
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What symbol is called 'hash' in US English? [closed]
In the UK the word hash refers to this symbol: #
What symbol does 'hash' refer to in US English?
And what word is used to describe the '£' symbol?
US British
# pound hash
£ ? ...
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use '/\' to denote that one missed something while writing
I have seen many people use '/\' to denote that they missed something while writing the sentence. Then, above that symbol they write what they missed. Are you aware of this practice?
Let's say, I am ...
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What is the character set of the (written) English language? [closed]
More specifically:
What dictionaries or lexicons (considering all ever published) of the English language contain exhaustive lists of the characters or symbols used in the formation of the words ...
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indefinite article before I(0)
I'm writing my thesis and need to write: "[...] and a/an I0 of [...]" and am puzzled about which indefinite article to use.
I(q) is a symbol for intensity as a function of the momentum transfer q ...
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Ending sentence with a single word following ... what punctuation?
I am currently writing an essay for school and ran into a problem that neither my friends nor I could solve.
Without any consequences for poor behavior, whether the consequences be outwardly ...
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5
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Why are there 4 ambiguous phonetic symbols in IPA representations of English?
I'm interested in phonetics in order to speak as properly as possible. And here's the thing, there are four vowels with ambiguous symbols:
The first problem is the sound [ɛ] like in dress: /drɛs/ ...
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Apostrophe on plurals of a word abbreviated with a symbol?
I can't find any good resources on this topic. We have an application that will abbreviate words at certain screen sizes and uses nomenclature specific to our client's fields.
One question that ...
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Is the hyphen correct, in lieu of the percent symbol, in this suspended compound?
The Associated Press replied to me and said the suspended compound below is correct exactly as presented (that is, a hyphen after 10 without the % symbol). Do you concur with the logic and the ...
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What word would you use to describe this symbol?
Is there a word for the black "mess" between the yellow star and the green exclamation mark? And is there a unicode character/emoji for this symbol?
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When discussing job experience, how should it read? [closed]
Should it read:
Jake has 20+ years experience.
Jake has +20 years experience.
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1
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What is the ¬ symbol called on a British Windows keyboard? [closed]
What is the ¬ symbol on a British Windows keyboard called? You get to it by pressing Shift and the key left of the '1'.
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How to denote a number if # cannot be used? (What are alternatives to # symbol?) [closed]
I have data file containing titles like
Invoice #ZT-123456 June 2017
or
Agreement #1_ABCD Foo Services
but I need to put these titles into an app where character # is not allowed. (Edit: And ...
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