Broken circle with a line (standby, power button)
Standby: the button or switch puts part of the equipment into its standby, low-power state and wakes it again. It does not fully disconnect the device from the mains. Under IEEE 1621 the same drawing simply means power.
Symbol reference: IEC 60417-5009
A mark tells you what the maker declares, never that the product is safe.
- What it looks like
- A circle with a gap at the top and a short vertical line coming down through the gap, the familiar power-button icon.
- Who may apply it
- The equipment maker, on the switch or button that puts the equipment into standby, or on the indicator for its low-power state.
What it does not promise
Pressing it usually leaves the device drawing some power and connected to the supply. To fully disconnect, use a switch marked with the on/off symbols or unplug it.
Other marks with the same shapes
Sources
Each page below was fetched and read on the date shown. Where a symbol’s IEC 60417 or ISO 7000 number is given, a public page listing that number is among them.
- Wikimedia Commons: File page transcribing IEC 60417 entry 5009 (title, function, notes) — Symbol 5009 from IEC 60417, “Stand-by”: to identify the switch or switch position by which part of the equipment is switched on to bring it into the stand-by condition, and the control to shift to or indicate the state of low power consumption. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Wikipedia: Power symbol — “IEC 60417-5009, the standby symbol … indicates a sleep mode or low power state. The switch does not fully disconnect the device from its power supply … under IEEE 1621, this symbol simply means ‘power’.” Checked 2026-09-24.
- Unicode Consortium: Unicode Character Database, NamesList.txt — U+23FB to U+23FE and U+2B58 — U+23FB POWER SYMBOL: “IEC 5009 standby symbol”, “IEEE 1621 power symbol”. Checked 2026-09-24.
Written in our own words; quotations are the sources’ wording.