How do I type the ⁁ caret insertion point symbol?

On Windows, type 2041 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2041. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.

What is the code for ⁁?

Caret Insertion Point is U+2041, written in HTML as &caret;. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.

What kind of character is ⁁?

Caret Insertion Point is filed under Other punctuation in the General Punctuation block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode files this under "other punctuation", the category for marks that are not brackets, dashes or quotes.

U+2041 · Other punctuation

HTML entity

&caret;

Caret Insertion Point Symbol ⁁

⁁ is caret insertion point. Write it in HTML as &caret; or paste the character directly. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other punctuation.

What Unicode says about ⁁

proofreader's mark: insert here

— annotation from the Unicode Standard, NamesList.txt

Codes & technical data

Unicode	`U+2041`
HTML hex	`⁁`
HTML decimal	`⁁`
CSS	`\2041`
JavaScript	`\u{2041}`
Python	`\U00002041`
Java / C#	`\u2041`
Rust	`\u{2041}`
Swift	`\u{2041}`
PHP	`\u{2041}`
URL encoded	`%E2%81%81`
UTF-8 bytes	`E2 81 81`
UTF-16 bytes	`2041`
Base64	`4oGB`
Decimal	`8257`
HTML entity	`&caret;`
Category	Other punctuation (Po)
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.

Unicode cross-references

The standard points readers of ⁁ at these characters — usually because they look alike, or because one is the correct choice where the other is often used by mistake.

⋌U+22CCright semidirect product

Nearby in General Punctuation

The typographic marks that word processors quietly substitute for their ASCII lookalikes — real quotation marks, en and em dashes, the ellipsis. It also holds the invisible characters: zero-width spaces, joiners and directional marks that do work without drawing anything.

All 71 characters in General Punctuation →

How to type ⁁

Windows	Type `2041` then press `Alt`+`X`
macOS	Press `Ctrl`+`Cmd`+`Space`, then search for “caret insertion point”
Linux	Press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`U`, type `2041`, press `Enter`
HTML	`&caret;`

About Unicode’s Other punctuation category

Unicode files this under "other punctuation", the category for marks that are not brackets, dashes or quotes.

Frequently asked questions

How do I type the ⁁ caret insertion point symbol?: On Windows, type 2041 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2041. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for ⁁?: Caret Insertion Point is U+2041, written in HTML as &caret;. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
What kind of character is ⁁?: Caret Insertion Point is filed under Other punctuation in the General Punctuation block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode files this under "other punctuation", the category for marks that are not brackets, dashes or quotes.