U+2642 "♂" Male Sign Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
♂
U+2642 "♂" Male Sign is a graphic symbol originally derived from the astronomical and mythological representation of the planet Mars, featuring a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally upward to the right. It is widely used in biological and medical contexts to denote the male sex, and in modern digital communication it often appears to signify masculinity, gender identity, or male-specific attributes. The glyph is part of the Miscellaneous Symbols block in Unicode and has a long history of use in fields ranging from genetics and botany to astrology. Its design and meaning are culturally recognized as a standard icon for male or masculine concepts.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+2642 |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Male Sign |
| Block | Miscellaneous Symbols |
| General Category | Other Symbol |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Other Neutral |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ♂ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ♂ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE2 0x99 0x82 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x2642 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x00002642 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u2642 |