Tap ♂ to copy the male sign, the circle with an arrow pointing to the upper right that also stands for the planet Mars. Take the emoji form ♂️ from the variants if you want colour, and use the table to type it yourself.
♂
MALE SIGN
U+2642 · tap the symbol to copy
How to Type the Male Symbol
Unicode
U+2642 MALE SIGN
HTML
♂ (add ️ for the emoji look)
Windows
Alt + 11 (numeric keypad, legacy code page), or type 2642 then Alt + X in Word
Mac
Control + Command + Space, search "male"; the picker inserts the emoji form
iPhone
Emoji keyboard → search "male"; ♂️ is in the Symbols group
Android
Gboard emoji search "male sign", or the Symbols tab of the emoji keyboard
LaTeX
\male or \mars (wasysym)
Male Symbol Variants and Lookalikes
♂️
Male Sign (emoji)The same character with U+FE0F; shown on a coloured square by most platforms
♀
Female SignThe companion symbol, Venus
⚣
Doubled Male SignTwo interlocked male signs
⚤
Interlocked Female and Male SignThe two signs linked
⚥
Male and Female SignOne glyph with both the arrow and the cross
⚦
Male with Stroke SignA male sign with a bar across the stem
⚧
Male with Stroke and Male and Female SignThe transgender symbol, also available as the emoji ⚧️
⚨
Vertical Male with Stroke SignHistorically used for iron in alchemy
↗
North East ArrowThe arrow part on its own; not a gender sign
🚹
Mens RoomThe facilities pictogram, emoji only
Using the Male Symbol
The male sign is a circle with an arrow rising from it towards the upper right. It began as the astrological glyph for Mars, and the arrow is often described as the spear and shield of the Roman war god, although the shape more likely developed from a shorthand for the planet's Greek name. Carl Linnaeus put it to work in the 1750s to label male plants in his botanical catalogues, and biology, medicine and genetics have used it ever since. Unicode assigned it U+2642 in 1993 and gave it an emoji presentation in 2016.
Plain text or emoji
The bare ♂ is a text glyph and takes the colour of whatever surrounds it, which suits tables, charts and inline notes. Appending the variation selector U+FE0F produces the emoji ♂️, typically a white symbol on a blue or purple tile. Because the code point is the same in both cases, a search for one finds the other. The emoji also hides inside gendered people emoji: a base person, a zero-width joiner and ♂️ make the man version, such as 🙎♂️ or 🧝♂️, so a lone ♂ that appears after a backspace is usually the remains of one of those sequences.
Where the sign is used
Science: pedigrees, breeding notes, lab forms and field records use ♂ and ♀ as a compact sex column.
Astronomy and astrology: Mars in planetary tables and birth charts, alongside the glyphs on the zodiac symbols page.
Alchemy and chemistry history: the same symbol stood for iron, which is why it turns up in old apothecary texts.
Everyday signage: facility doors and locker rooms in places that prefer symbols to pictograms.
Bios and profiles: a short way to state gender in a dating profile, a gaming handle or a fitness account, for example "♂ 28 Berlin".
Related characters
The block that holds ♂ also holds the doubled ⚣, the interlocked ⚤, the combined ⚥, the stroked ⚦ and the transgender symbol ⚧. Each is a separate character with its own meaning, and people use them to describe identity and orientation; use them as the person themselves does and avoid guessing. The plain north-east arrow ↗ and the alchemical iron sign ⚨ are lookalikes with unrelated meanings.
Typing and rendering
The old DOS code page placed the male sign at position 11, so Alt + 11 on the numeric keypad still types it in most Windows programs; its partner the female symbol is Alt + 12. In Word, 2642 followed by Alt + X does the same on any keyboard. Macs offer no shortcut, but the Character Viewer finds it under "male", and phones keep it in the emoji keyboard's Symbols tab. Every mainstream font includes the text glyph, so it survives on older devices and in game chats that strip emoji. In a display name it stays plain even when the letters around it come from the bold fonts generator, because stylised alphabets only cover letters and digits.
Male Symbol FAQ
What does the ♂ symbol stand for?
It is the male sign, meaning male or man in biology, medicine and everyday writing. It is also the astronomical and astrological symbol for Mars, which is where the arrow-and-circle shape originated.
What is the Alt code for the male symbol?
Alt + 11 on the numeric keypad, a legacy code from the original IBM PC character set. It works in Notepad, Word and most Windows desktop apps; in Word, typing 2642 then Alt + X is an alternative.
Why does the male sign appear when I delete a man emoji?
Man emoji such as 🙎♂️ are sequences of a base person, an invisible joiner and ♂️. Some keyboards remove one component per backspace, so the male sign lingers until you press delete once more.
Does the male symbol have an emoji version?
Yes. Add U+FE0F after it to get ♂️, which platforms draw on a coloured square. Emoji keyboards insert that form automatically when you search for "male".
Is the Mars symbol the same character as the male symbol?
Yes, Unicode uses one code point, U+2642, for both. Context tells the reader whether it means the planet or the sex; in a birth chart it is Mars, on a lab form it is male.
What is the difference between ♂ and ⚦?
The stroked version ⚦ adds a horizontal bar across the stem. It is a separate character at U+26A6 and is used with other meanings, including in older alchemy and in some identity symbols, so it is not a stylistic variant of ♂.