The ° (Degree Sign) Symbol: Meaning, History, and Uses
The degree sign (°) is a typographical symbol primarily used to represent degrees of temperature, angles in mathematics, and geographic coordinates. Visually, it consists of a small raised circle. You will most commonly see it alongside scales like Celsius (°C) and Fahrenheit (°F) to indicate the weather, or in geometry to measure the angle of a circle.
The exact origin of the degree symbol is somewhat murky, but historians believe it evolved from a small numeral zero. Early mathematicians and astronomers needed a shorthand way to write "degrees, minutes, seconds" for angles and coordinates. Over time, that tiny superscript zero became the standard symbol we use across the globe today.
In the Unicode standard, the degree sign is designated as U+00B0 and sits in the Latin-1 Supplement block. It was officially added to Unicode in version 1.1 back in 1993, making it one of the foundational characters for digital text representation and data sharing.
Beyond talking about whether you need a winter coat today or measuring a perfect 90-degree right angle, the degree sign pops up in several other contexts. In chemistry and physics, scientists use it to indicate standard state conditions. On social media, while you will mostly use it to complain about summer heatwaves, you might also spot it used creatively in text art or kaomoji, acting as a tiny floating bubble or a decorative accent. In programming, it rarely acts as an operator but frequently appears in text strings related to weather apps or mapping software.
Typing the degree symbol is simple once you know the shortcuts. On a Mac keyboard, press Option + Shift + 8. On Windows, hold down the Alt key and type 0176 on your numeric keypad. For iOS and Android smartphones, simply switch to the numbers keyboard, press and hold the zero key (0), and slide your finger to the degree symbol that pops up.
It is incredibly easy to confuse the degree sign with a few similar-looking characters. The masculine ordinal indicator (º) is used in Romance languages and often features a tiny line underneath. The ring above (˚) is a diacritic mark meant to attach to letters, like in the Swedish Å. While Unicode does include specific combined symbols for degrees Celsius (℃) and Fahrenheit (℉), typing the standard degree sign followed by a capital 'C' or 'F' remains the universally preferred method.