What ⌫ means
It marks an erase action that moves backward through the text. In left-to-right text, it removes the character just before the cursor; in right-to-left text, “before” follows text order, not a fixed screen direction. ⌫ is a printed key legend, not the control code sent by a keystroke.
The action is older than this glyph. On a typewriter, Backspace moved the carriage—the paper-and-printing assembly—back so a typist could overstrike a mark or correct alignment. Later correction-capable typewriters and computer editors made moving back an erase operation. ASCII, an early character-encoding standard, and terminal software also use nonprinting control codes for key actions; those codes are distinct from this printed key label.
Why can a terminal misread this key?
The terminal and host may expect different codes. A terminal emulator, software that acts like a text terminal, may send one control code while the remote host program expects another. The mismatch can show ^H or ^?, move the cursor oddly, or trigger a different command.
Fonts draw the box and arrow with different proportions, but the sign still labels the erase action.
Technical and instructional: use ⌫ to label an editing action, key, or shortcut.
Pasting the printed glyph inserts a symbol; it does not trigger erasure.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
2
Related characters
2
Combination ideas
4Questions people ask
1Why does Backspace show ^H?
The terminal or host is displaying a Backspace control code as text instead of handling it as deletion. The two sides may be mapped to different codes.
More like this
14
Collections with ⌫
2
How to type or find ⌫
- Also called
- backspace symbol · backspace key · backarrow
- Search it as
- backspace · bs
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⌫\232BCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.