What § means, where it came from, and how to type it — click to copy.
Click to copy · U+00A7
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Character | § |
| Unicode code point | U+00A7 |
| Unicode name | SECTION SIGN |
| Unicode block | Latin-1 Supplement |
| Category | Special character |
The section sign descends from the medieval Latin abbreviation signum sectionis ("mark of a section"), commonly shortened by scribes to a doubled letter S. Over centuries of handwriting, the two S shapes were interlocked and stylized into the single glyph we use today.
Its main job has stayed remarkably consistent: marking the start of a distinct, numbered section within a longer legal, religious, or academic text. It remains the standard way to cite a specific part of a statute — "§ 230" is instantly recognizable in US legal writing as a reference to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and the same convention holds across most legal systems that use Latin-alphabet typography.
| Platform | Works? |
|---|---|
| Documents, emails, bios | Yes |
| Discord / Instagram / WhatsApp | Yes |
| Roblox / PlayStation / Xbox username | No — alphanumeric only |
| Method | Input |
|---|---|
| Windows Alt code | Alt+0167 |
| Mac | Option+6 |
| HTML entity | § or § |
| CSS content | content: "\00A7" |
§ is one of dozens of punctuation and typography symbols in the full special characters library.
Browse Special Characters →§ marks a specific numbered section within a legal document, statute, or long text — "Section 230" is usually written "§ 230" in legal citation. It's also used more loosely in academic and technical writing to reference a numbered subdivision.
On Windows, hold Alt and type 0167 on the numeric keypad (Alt+0167). On Mac, press Option+6. In HTML, use the entity § or §.
§ marks a numbered section, typically in legal or statutory citation. ¶ (the pilcrow) marks a paragraph break, most often seen as a formatting-marks indicator in word processors. They serve different structural roles and aren't interchangeable.