What ⇦ means
It points left; context supplies the specific cue.
In 1737, engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor used an arrow for water flow and waterwheel rotation. By the mid-18th century, German maps used arrows for rivers. By the late 19th century, arrows shed an archer’s feathers and shaft, leaving the point to signal direction. In 1922, mathematician David Hilbert used an arrow to show that one statement follows from another. These trace arrow history, not the origin of ⇦’s outline.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions 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 21E6, 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 “leftwards white arrow”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 21e6, then Enter or Space.
HTML
⇦CSS
\21E6HTML
Type the hollow left arrow in HTML with the hexadecimal character reference `⇦`.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
⇦
HTML hex
⇦
CSS content
content: "\21E6";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%87%A6
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.