What ≫ means
It means “much greater than,” not just “bigger.” Plain > only says which side is larger; ≫ claims the gap is big enough to ignore the smaller quantity. Some fonts nest its two chevrons, which changes nothing.
The ordinary > sign first appeared in print in 1631, in Thomas Harriot's posthumously published algebra; ≫ doubles it to strengthen the comparison.
Don't confuse it with
2»
Right-Pointing Double Angle Quotation Mark
A quotation mark, as in «…», not a maths operator.
>>
Two separate > characters; in code it usually means bit shift.
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 226B, 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 “much greater-than”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 226b, then Enter or Space.
HTML
≫CSS
\226BLaTeX
\gg in math mode.
Word equation
Type \gg or \muchgreater, then a space.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
≫
HTML hex
≫
CSS content
content: "\226B";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%89%AB
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.