What ⪆ means
The left side is greater than or approximately equal to the right.
It marks an approximate inequality. The glyph sets no numerical cutoff; the surrounding formula supplies what “approximately equal” allows.
Don't confuse it with
4⩾⪀⪂⪄
Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To
shares “greater”, “or”, “than”
Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To With Dot Inside
shares “greater”, “or”, “than”
Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To With Dot Above
shares “greater”, “or”, “than”
Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To With Dot Above Left
shares “greater”, “or”, “than”
Questions people ask
1Why does ⪆ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ⪆
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 2A86, then Alt+X to get ⪆.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “greater-than or approximate”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 2a86, then Enter or Space.
HTML
⪆CSS
\2A86LaTeX (unicode-math)
With `unicode-math` loaded, enter `\gtrapprox` in math mode.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
⪆
HTML hex
⪆
CSS content
content: "\2A86";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%AA%86
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.