Mathematical symbol Almost Equal To
About this character
The character ≈ carries the official Unicode name “Mathematical symbol Almost Equal To” and the code point U+2248, which is 8776 in decimal. It belongs to the Mathematical Operators block (U+2200–U+22FF), which gathers the operators, quantifiers and relations of algebra, logic and set theory.
In memory, ≈ takes 3 bytes in UTF-8 (0xE2 0x89 0x88) and 1 in UTF-16 (0x2248). That difference is why badly configured forms or databases garble this character: they assume one byte per character.
How to type ≈
| System | What to do |
|---|---|
| Windows | In Word or WordPad, type 2248 and press Alt + X to turn the code into the character. |
| macOS | On a Mac using the ABC/US layout, ⌥ + X produces this character directly. |
| Linux | On Linux (GTK), type Ctrl + ⇧ + U, 2248 then press Enter. |
| HTML / Web | In an HTML page, write ≈. Use \2248 in CSS, \u2248 in JavaScript and \u2248 in Python. |
| On this site | The simplest route is the Copy button above: the character goes straight to your clipboard, ready to paste anywhere. |
Keyboards that include ≈
This character is not on any common physical layout, so the Copy button above is the quickest way to get it into a document.
Codes and encodings
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+2248 |
| Unicode block | Mathematical Operators (U+2200–U+22FF) |
| Decimal | 8776 |
| Hexadecimal | 0x2248 |
| Octal | 021110 |
| Binary | 10001001001000 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 0xE2 0x89 0x88 |
| UTF-16 units | 0x2248 |
| Named HTML entity | ≈ |
| Decimal HTML entity | ≈ |
| Hex HTML entity | ≈ |
| CSS escape | \2248 |
| JavaScript escape | \u2248 |
| Python escape | \u2248 |
| URL encoding | %E2%89%88 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the Unicode code for ≈?
Its code point is U+2248, which is 8776 in decimal and 021110 in octal. In HTML you can write it as ≈ or ≈.
Why does ≈ show up as a box or a question mark?
An empty box means the font has no glyph for U+2248. The character is still in the text: switching to a font that covers the block (Noto, DejaVu or Segoe UI Symbol) makes it appear.
Can I use ≈ in a filename, a URL or a password?
In a URL it must be encoded as %E2%89%88. Modern filesystems accept it, though it is still risky when moving files between systems. For passwords, some forms reject non-ASCII characters outright.