Dot Symbols

A dot looks simple until you need a particular one. On the baseline sit the full stop . and its relatives ․ (one dot leader, the dot of a table of contents) and ﹒ (small full stop). Raised to the middle of the line are · (middle dot, also called interpunct), ⸱ (word separator middle dot), ‧ (hyphenation point, the dot dictionaries use to show where a word breaks: syl‧la‧ble) and ⸳ (raised dot). Then the dots grow: ∙ (bullet operator) and ⋅ (dot operator) are the small maths dots, • (bullet) is the list dot, ⦁ ● are solid black circles and ⬤ (black large circle) is the biggest dot that still behaves like a text character.

For most people the choice is between three. · is the separator for one-line bios and titles, Berlin · Designer · Coffee, because it is light and sits mid-line. • is heavier and starts a list item. ⋅ is the dot for multiplication and dot products, narrower than · and spaced like an operator. If you only need a dot that looks right everywhere, · and • are in every font on earth; ⦁ ⬤ 🞄 depend on the font and may show as boxes on old systems.

The hollow family is the same ladder with the middle taken out: ∘ (ring operator), ⸰ (ring point), ◦ (white bullet), ⚬, ○ and the dotted circle ◌, which is the placeholder fonts draw under an accent that has nothing to sit on. Put a dot back inside a ring and you get ⊙ ◉ ⦿ ◎ ⊚ ⦾ ⨀, the dot-in-circle marks used for targets, selected options and the Sun; ◘ ◙ are a dot and a ring on a black square, left over from the DOS character set. Watch the look-alikes: ° is the degree sign, ˚ is the ring accent of å, and ∘ is the maths ring, and they are three different characters.

Three dots, four dots, five: … ⋮ ∴ ⁘ ⁙

Three dots in a row are the ellipsis … , one character (U+2026) rather than three full stops, so it never breaks across a line and stays evenly spaced. ⋯ (midline horizontal ellipsis) is the raised version used in maths between terms, 1, 2, ⋯, n, and in the "more options" button of many apps; ⋮ (vertical ellipsis) is the three stacked dots of the Android and Google overflow menu, which designers call the kebab menu, while ⋰ ⋱ run diagonally across a matrix. ⁝ (tricolon) and ⫶ are the same stack drawn tighter, and ︙ is the ellipsis for vertical Japanese and Chinese text.

Dots arranged in a shape mean something. ∴ (therefore) and ∵ (because) are the triangle marks of maths proofs, ⁖ is the same triangle as punctuation, ⸫ ⸪ are their one-over-two and two-over-one cousins. ∷ (proportion) is four dots in a square and reads "as" in ratios, ⁘ is four dots as a diamond, ⁛ four dots as a cross, ⁞ four in a column; ⁙ and ⸭ are five dots in a quincunx, like the five on a die, and ⸽ is a column of six. Most of these were added for scholars transcribing old manuscripts: ⁖ ⁘ ⁙ ⁚ ⁝ came in Unicode 4.1 (2005) and ⸭ in 5.1 (2008). Two dots have their own set: : (colon), ⁚ (two dot punctuation, a colon drawn as two round dots) and ‥ (two dot leader).

Dots in maths and science

⋅ (dot operator, U+22C5) is the multiplication dot: a ⋅ b is the dot product of two vectors and 2 ⋅ 3 is a product written without ×. In plain text most people type the middle dot · instead, and it reads fine, but ⋅ is the character maths fonts and LaTeX's \cdot produce. ∙ (bullet operator) is a slightly larger alternative, and ∘ (ring operator) means function composition: f ∘ g is "f after g". ⊙ and the big ⨀ are the circled dot operators, ⊡ the squared one, used for element-wise products and other operations a textbook defines on the spot.

∴ and ∵ carry the logic of a proof: x + 2 = 5 ∴ x = 3, ∵ x > 0. ∷ writes a proportion, 1 : 2 ∷ 3 : 6. A dot above a letter, ẋ, is Newton's notation for a derivative with respect to time, and two dots, ẍ, the second derivative; you make them with the combining dot above ̇ and combining diaeresis ¨ after any letter. The dotted circle ◌ shows up whenever such a mark is displayed on its own. In the tables of chemistry and physics the dot also joins hydrates, CuSO₄ · 5H₂O, and separates units, kg · m/s².

Middle dot and other dots around the world

The middle dot · is part of ordinary spelling in Catalan, where it splits the double l in col·legi and il·lusió; Spanish keyboards have it on Shift+3 for that reason. In Chinese the same dot separates the parts of foreign names, 乔治·布什, and in Japanese the katakana middle dot ・ does the job, ジョン・スミス, and also decorates bios and headers. The Japanese and Chinese full stop is a small hollow circle, 。, with a half-width twin ｡ that aesthetic text borrows for sparkly dividers like ˚｡⋆, and a full-width period ． for text set with East Asian spacing. The Greek upper dot (ano teleia, U+0387) looks exactly like · but is Greek's semicolon; it is left out of this grid because it copies as a plain middle dot in most apps.

Older scripts separated words with dots long before spaces were common. Runic inscriptions set ᛫ or ᛬ between words, Ethiopic still writes ፡ (wordspace) between words and ends a sentence with the four dots of ። (Ethiopic full stop), Mongolian closes a passage with ᠅ (four dots), and ؞ is a three-dot mark from Arabic-script texts. Latin stone inscriptions used a small triangular interpunct between words, which is where the middle dot's other name comes from.

How to type a dot symbol on the keyboard

Windows: hold Alt and type on the number pad 0183 for ·, 0149 for •, 0133 for … and 0168 for ¨. Mac: Option+Shift+9 gives ·, Option+8 gives •, Option+; gives … . In Word, type the code and press Alt+X: 00B7 for ·, 2022 for •, 22C5 for ⋅, 2234 for ∴, 22EE for ⋮; the same Alt+X trick works in Outlook and WordPad. In HTML use · • ⋅ … ∴. On Linux, Ctrl+Shift+U then the hex code and Enter works in GTK apps.

On an iPhone, hold the hyphen key to get • and hold the period for …; the middle dot and the maths dots are not on the stock keyboard, so copy them from this page or add one as a text replacement (Settings › General › Keyboard). The dot emoji are easier: ⚫ ⚪ 🔴 🟠 🟡 🟢 🔵 🟣 🟤 are in every emoji keyboard under Symbols, 🔘 is the radio button, ⏺️ the record button, and 💠 and 🔯 are the two emoji with a dot in the middle. 🟢 next to a name means online, 🔴 means live or recording, ⚫ ⚪ are the plain bullet emoji that match any colour scheme.