What ⇴ means
It gives direction, not a standard instruction.
Unicode, the standard for text characters, records proposal N2336 from 2001 to add this math arrow among additional mathematical symbols. That traces its technical history; the exact operation comes from the surrounding notation.
Technical-looking in casual chat; context must supply any special instruction.
When the destination matters, name it in words; ⇴ alone leaves the next step unclear.
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 21F4, 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 “right arrow with small circle”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 21f4, then Enter or Space.
HTML
⇴CSS
\21F4Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
⇴
HTML hex
⇴
CSS content
content: "\21F4";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%87%B4
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.