@
At Sign
- Unicode
- U+0040
- Category
- Punctuation
- HTML Entity
- @
- CSS
- \0040
The at sign (@) is the separator in every email address: the name goes before it, the mail server after it (name@example.com). Long before email it was a merchant's abbreviation for "at the rate of" (10 apples @ $1), which is why it survived on typewriters and then on computer keyboards. Ray Tomlinson picked it for the first network email in 1971 because it was the one keyboard symbol unlikely to appear in a person's name.
On social networks @ in front of a username creates a mention (@name). On a US keyboard it is Shift+2; on UK keyboards it is Shift and the apostrophe key. On a phone it appears directly on the email keyboard, otherwise on the first symbols page.
On social networks @ in front of a username creates a mention (@name). On a US keyboard it is Shift+2; on UK keyboards it is Shift and the apostrophe key. On a phone it appears directly on the email keyboard, otherwise on the first symbols page.
How to Type
- Windows
- Shift+2 (US) · Shift+' (UK) · Alt+64
- macOS
- Shift+2
- Linux
- Shift+2 · Ctrl+Shift+U 40
- HTML
- @
In Programming
Beyond email addresses, @ marks decorators in Python and TypeScript and annotations in Java (@Override), CSS at-rules (@media, @import), Blade and Razor directives (@if), variables in T-SQL (@id), and error suppression in PHP. In Git, HEAD@{1} refers to an earlier position of a branch.
Tags
at sign
at symbol
email symbol
commercial at
alt 64
shift 2
mention
keyboard symbol
ascii