The Ultimate Guide to the ↶ (Anticlockwise Arrow) Symbol
The ↶ (Anticlockwise Arrow) symbol represents a counterclockwise rotational movement or a shift backward in direction. Across digital interfaces, you will most often recognize it as the universal icon for the "undo" command, allowing users to reverse a mistake, step back in a process, or return to a previous state.
Introduced as part of the Unicode Standard 1.1 in 1993, this symbol lives in the "Arrows" block under the code point U+21B6. Arrows are some of the oldest typographical marks, originally evolving from simple pointing hands in medieval manuscripts into the clean, geometric lines we use today. The curved stem of the ↶ specifically indicates rotation rather than just strict lateral movement.
Beyond fixing a typo in your favorite text editor, the anticlockwise arrow pops up in various technical fields. In mathematics and physics, it illustrates counterclockwise rotation, such as measuring positive angles in trigonometry or mapping torque. In programming and flowchart design, developers use it to visualize a process looping back on itself or a system returning to a previous function.
On social media and messaging platforms, people use ↶ to express taking a step back, revisiting a past topic, or metaphorically "undoing" a bad take. It functions beautifully as a clean, minimalist alternative to the bulkier 🔙 (Back Arrow) emoji or the 🔄 (Counterclockwise Arrows Button) emoji, making it a popular choice for aesthetic text formatting and minimal social media bios.
Typing the ↶ symbol depends on your device. On Windows, you can insert it by holding the Alt key and typing 8630 on your numeric keypad. Mac users can easily find it by pressing Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer and searching for "anticlockwise arrow." If you are writing HTML for a website, simply use the entity code ↶ to render it perfectly on the page.
You cannot talk about the ↶ symbol without mentioning its direct counterpart, the ↷ (Clockwise Arrow) located at U+21B7, which serves as the standard "redo" or forward-stepping icon. You might also confuse it with the ↺ (Anticlockwise Open Circle Arrow), though the latter forms a much tighter circle and is typically used to represent refreshing a web page or rebooting a system.