Capricorn
Copy and paste the capricorn symbol ♑ (U+2651) instantly. Part of the Miscellaneous Symbols Unicode block.
Works everywhere: websites, documents, social media, code editors
Character Codes
About This Symbol
- Name
- Capricorn
- Unicode Block
- Miscellaneous Symbols
- Code Point
- U+2651
The Capricorn (♑) is a Unicode character assigned to the Miscellaneous Symbols block at code point U+2651. This block contains characters used across a variety of applications including technical documentation, web development, mathematical notation, and everyday digital communication. The capricorn symbol can be inserted directly into text or referenced through its HTML entity, CSS code, or JavaScript escape sequence for use in websites and applications.
How to Use
- 1.Click "Copy Symbol" above to copy ♑ to your clipboard
- 2.Paste it anywhere with Ctrl+V (or Cmd+V on Mac)
- 3.Or use the HTML entity
♑in your code - 4.For CSS, use
\2651with the content property
Understanding Capricorn
The capricorn (♑), registered at U+2651 in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, is one of the many characters that make digital typography expressive and precise. Its standardized encoding means that any system supporting Unicode can display it faithfully without requiring special fonts or plugins.
The hexadecimal value 2651 places this character at decimal position 9809 in the Unicode table. At this position, the character falls 1 positions past the nearest hex boundary, a detail relevant for font engineers mapping glyph tables. For practical use, ♑ in HTML or \u{2651} in JavaScript are the most common insertion methods.
This character from the Miscellaneous Symbols block addresses a specific typographic or symbolic need. It is used in contexts where its particular shape or meaning cannot be adequately represented by more common characters, making it valuable for specialized documents, interfaces, and data formats.
About Dingbats & Ornaments
Dingbats are the decorative workhorses of typography — stars, crosses, check marks, arrows, pointing hands, scissors, and ornamental flourishes that enliven documents without requiring separate image files. Originally designed as printer's ornaments, they found new life in the desktop publishing revolution and continue to serve as instantly recognizable symbols for bullets, ratings, validation states, and decorative borders in digital interfaces.
Hermann Zapf designed the ITC Zapf Dingbats typeface in 1978, creating an elegant collection of ornamental symbols that became one of the most influential non-alphabetic fonts in typography. When Apple included Zapf Dingbats as a standard system font on the Macintosh and Adobe embedded it in PostScript, these symbols became ubiquitous in desktop publishing. The Wingdings and Webdings fonts later expanded the concept with additional pictographic symbols. Unicode encoded the Zapf Dingbats repertoire in the Dingbats block (U+2700–U+27BF) to ensure these widely used symbols had stable, interoperable code points independent of any particular font. The Ornamental Dingbats block, added in Unicode 7.0, provides additional decorative elements.
Common Uses
- •Bullet points, check marks, and list decorations
- •Star ratings and review indicators
- •Section dividers and decorative borders
- •Validation symbols (check marks, crosses) in forms
- •Desktop publishing ornaments and flourishes
Technical Notes: Many dingbat characters exist in a gray zone between text symbols and emoji. The check mark (U+2713), heavy check mark (U+2714), and cross mark (U+274C) may render as plain text glyphs or colorful emoji depending on platform and presentation selectors. This inconsistency complicates their use in interfaces where a specific appearance is required. The Miscellaneous Symbols block (U+2600–U+26FF) overlaps conceptually with dingbats and contains weather symbols, astrological signs, game pieces, and recycling indicators — many of which have been retrofitted with emoji presentations in recent Unicode versions.
Cultural Context: The pointing hand symbol (manicule, ☞) has one of the longest histories of any dingbat, appearing in medieval manuscripts as a reader's annotation mark centuries before it became a typographic standard. The asterisk has served as a footnote marker since antiquity. Stars as rating indicators likely derive from military insignia traditions. These symbols demonstrate how pre-digital visual conventions seamlessly transitioned into the digital era, their meanings so deeply embedded in visual culture that they require no explanation across linguistic boundaries. The scissors symbol (✂) on dotted lines, the envelope (✉) for email, and the telephone (☎) for phone numbers have become universal interface metaphors.