Male Sign ♂

The Male Sign character (♂) is a standard HTML entity defined in the HTML specification. In HTML source code, it can be written using the named entity reference ♂, the decimal numeric character reference ♂, or the hexadecimal numeric reference ♂. The character is assigned Unicode code point U+2642 in the Universal Character Set.

The male sign (♂) is the astronomical symbol for Mars, widely adopted as the symbol for male sex and the masculine. It consists of a circle with an arrow pointing up and to the right. The symbol is standard in biology, medicine, genealogy, and scientific research.

Symbol entities encompass a wide variety of special characters used in legal disclaimers, intellectual property notices, typographic ornaments, card suit indicators, and miscellaneous notation throughout web content. These characters appear in website footers for copyright notices, product pages for trademark symbols, academic papers for dagger footnote markers, and decorative or gaming contexts for card suits and stars.

When deciding how to encode the Male Sign character in your HTML documents, the named entity ♂ is generally the most readable choice for developers reviewing or maintaining source code. The decimal form ♂ and hexadecimal form ♂ are equally valid alternatives that work in contexts where named entities may not be supported, or when generating HTML output programmatically from server-side code. All three representations produce identical visual output in every modern web browser.

Use the male sign in biological and medical contexts to indicate male sex, in genealogical records, and scientific content. It pairs with ♀ (♀) for a complete binary sex notation. As with the female sign, consider context when choosing between symbols and written labels.