U+21AB · Other symbol
HTML entity
↫
LaTeX
\looparrowleft
Leftwards Arrow With Loop Symbol ↫
↫ is leftwards arrow with loop. Write it in HTML as ↫ or paste the character directly. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other symbol.
Also known as
Unicode 1.0 called this character left arrow with loop. 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+21AB | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ↫ | |
| HTML decimal | ↫ | |
| CSS | \21AB | |
| JavaScript | \u{21AB} | |
| Python | \U000021AB | |
| Java / C# | \u21AB | |
| Rust | \u{21ab} | |
| Swift | \u{21AB} | |
| PHP | \u{21AB} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%86%AB | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 86 AB | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 21AB | |
| Base64 | 4oar | |
| Decimal | 8619 | |
| HTML entity | ↫ | |
| LaTeX | \looparrowleft | |
| 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.
Nearby in Arrows
The core arrow set: every direction, plus doubled, dashed, hooked and looped variants. Anything not here is in one of the four supplemental arrow blocks, which exist because this one filled up.
How to type ↫
| Windows | Type 21AB then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “leftwards arrow with loop” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 21ab, 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 ↫ leftwards arrow with loop symbol?
- On Windows, type 21AB and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 21ab. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ↫?
- Leftwards Arrow With Loop is U+21AB, written in HTML as ↫ and in LaTeX as \looparrowleft. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ↫?
- Leftwards Arrow With Loop is filed under Other symbol in the Arrows 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.