U+25BE · Other symbol
HTML entity
▾
LaTeX
\blacktriangledown
Black Down-Pointing Small Triangle Symbol ▾
▾ is black down-pointing small triangle, U+25BE — \blacktriangledown in LaTeX. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other symbol.
Also known as
Unicode 1.0 called this character black down pointing small triangle. The standard renamed it later, but documents, fonts and font-editing tools from that era still use the old name.
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+25BE | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ▾ | |
| HTML decimal | ▾ | |
| CSS | \25BE | |
| JavaScript | \u{25BE} | |
| Python | \U000025BE | |
| Java / C# | \u25BE | |
| Rust | \u{25be} | |
| Swift | \u{25BE} | |
| PHP | \u{25BE} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%96%BE | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 96 BE | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 25BE | |
| Base64 | 4pa+ | |
| Decimal | 9662 | |
| HTML entity | ▾ | |
| LaTeX | \blacktriangledown | |
| Category | Other symbol (So) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ▾ survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. Yes. ▾ is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
- Legacy encodings. ▾ is Unicode-only — it has no Latin-1 equivalent, so a system stuck on an 8-bit encoding cannot represent it.
- Size. 3 bytes in UTF-8. Character-limited fields — SMS, bios, some form validators — usually count bytes, not characters.
Other triangle characters
Unicode names 24 characters ending in “triangle”. They differ by direction, weight or decoration rather than by meaning.
Nearby in Geometric Shapes
Circles, squares, triangles and diamonds in filled and outlined forms, at several sizes. The bullet characters most lists use come from here.
How to type ▾
| Windows | Type 25BE then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “black down-pointing small triangle” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 25be, press Enter |
| HTML | ▾ |
About Unicode’s Other symbol category
Unicode files this under "other symbol" — the catch-all for pictographs, signs and marks that are neither maths, currency, nor letter-like. It is the largest symbol category in the standard.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the ▾ black down-pointing small triangle symbol?
- On Windows, type 25BE and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 25be. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ▾?
- Black Down-Pointing Small Triangle is U+25BE, written in HTML as ▾ and in LaTeX as \blacktriangledown. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ▾?
- Black Down-Pointing Small Triangle is filed under Other symbol in the Geometric Shapes block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode files this under "other symbol" — the catch-all for pictographs, signs and marks that are neither maths, currency, nor letter-like. It is the largest symbol category in the standard.